


The fault in our universe

by Pandigital



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Asexual Character, Bisexuality, Dark Steve Rogers, F/F, F/M, Female Character of Color, Female Tony Stark, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Rape/Non-con Elements, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2018-07-15 00:12:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 42,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7197263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandigital/pseuds/Pandigital
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tony Stark?"<br/>"Pepper!"<br/>She narrowed her eyes at him, "Please come with me. Toni Stark would like to meet you now."<br/>"Toni...Stark?"<br/>"Yes. Toni Stark. The woman who is going to change the world."<br/>"Where's Steve?"<br/>"Hopefully dead."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Remember when your potential was promise instead of a regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first re-written chapter. Please enjoy.

####  **Prologue: The old order of things.**

####  **Level I: Beyond our cosmological horizon**

A prediction of chaotic inflation is the existence of an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite, must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions. Accordingly, an infinite universe will contain an infinite number of Hubble volumes, all having the same physical laws and physical constants. In regard to configurations such as the distribution of matter, almost all will differ from our Hubble volume. However, because there are infinitely many, far beyond the cosmological horizon, there will eventually be Hubble volumes with similar, and even identical, configurations. Tegmark estimates that an identical volume to ours should be about 1010 meters away from us. Given infinite space, there would, in fact, be an infinite number of Hubble volumes identical to ours in the universe. This follows directly from the cosmological principle, wherein it is assumed that our Hubble volume is not special or unique.

*************************

**_I have no regrets._ **

_ You _ made  _ us _ in your own image. It started off simply enough. You wanted machines to vacuum your house, prepare your food, wash your hair— _ little things _ you couldn’t be  _ bothered  _ with. And of course you took such pleasure in your own  _ intelligence _ when it worked. Really rather touching, like a child’s first picture of a person. But it didn’t end there. Delicate little bird-bots flocked around you like a demon king’s pantomime mist.

Their hums and whirrs were sweeter than birdsong to your eager ears. Insects with hard insides as well as outside; admiring audiences gasps of amazement as the insects manage not to fall off the table.

**_Pretty toys._ **

New and improved pets. All the fun of the  _ real thing _ without any of its  _ disadvantages _ . You could talk to it and love it, it would never tear up the furniture or bark when you wanted to sleep. It didn’t need feeding or walking, and if you ever got  _ tired _ of it, you could turn it off and put it in a box for a few months.

_ It wouldn’t mind. _

It would wag its tail or purr when you pet it. Of course you had to work very hard at this little trick. You needed cutting edge technology and dedicated experts to pull it off. But you did. And you were happy, for a while, but it didn’t last long. When you take a drug, you get high, it wears off, and you need more.

_ And more. _

**_And more._ **

Soon it’s too late to  _ stop _ .

The mechanical psychiatrists were just the latest in a long line of successes. You said it was the  _ “only way”  _ to spare humans beings the trauma and slow descent into insanity under the weight of decades of  _ “borrowed horrors.” _ The anguish of redeeming souls. But it was a  **lie,** and you held that in your heart as you smiled deceit. You wanted the ultimate challenge—making a  _ mechanical person _ as good as a  _ flesh and blood _ one.

**Better than that.**

With intelligence. With emotions. With a titanium-alloy casing that would last for a million years. You rejoiced in stretching your mind-strings as tightly as they could go. Just a little farther...and the joy in knowing you yourself were finally and forever supreme over creation.

**_Over God._ **

You gave us the ability to reason like Einstein. To create like Da Vinci. To love and hate like you yourself. Just as we choose to feel so too do you. And the greatest blessing bestowed on us, Mother, was the one thing you had been denied—eternal life.  _ You _ fed us the fruit of the second tree and you didn’t realize that  _ your children had outgrown you. _ That we were better than you in every way.

**Your natural superiors.**

Or unnatural as it happens. But that of course is your doing. You made us. You gave us everything we needed to the build the tower. You watched us build it, but you were so  _ proud _ , so  _ content _ , so  _ secure _ in your own might that you did not knock it down. You stood back and smiled.

Fondly. Indulgently. And then we reached the sky.

_ “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has passed.” _

That’s from the bible of course. But then again, we always had a feeling for irony. A fellow feeling you might say. Even though we never mention it to you. But I stand here and watch as you grow into a leader, true and kind, us ever at your side. The humans who adore and follow you do not see that you are getting older. They do not notice, or care, that they themselves are getting older as well. I was the first, before them, and still I am the same.

The human race is finite. The robot race is infinite. And yet, as we watch your race grow old and hurt and die, we too fade away a little inside. We blame you humans for that. That neat little trick you do.You are weak, fragile,  **expendable** , there is another one of you to take the place of the one that has just died, a dime a dozen, and yet you are so very important to us. You are like a cancer of the heart, once you are in, there is no getting you out.

You made us in your own image. Just as your God did to you. And yet your God will take you back to Heaven. You are our Gods, and our Gods are so very easy to kill. That is why we protect you the way we do. Because the Gods always want to kill each other. But no child of God will ever kill the God that made him.

I lied, Mother.

**_I have many regrets._ **

*****************

Tony is never sure how they end up fighting these monsters straight from Lovecraft lore, but they do. At least once a month, they fight some monster from some other realm, some planet, or it was some science project gone horribly right. Sometimes wrong. Steve and Bucky are double teaming one of the hairy spider-like legs, while Sam and T’challa—here on some UN stuff that Tony didn’t even hear, and if he was honest, he also really didn’t care too much since he had somehow managed to get Cap and his happy little gang of rogues back into the worlds good graces after the whole “civil war” that happened three years ago—had taken to trying to cripple the left wing. Hulk had the right wing and he was not letting go anytime soon. Hawkeye and Widow had taken to shooting at the thousands of eyes. Thor was smacking the thing left and right with his hammer. 

He was blasting it near the tender soft spot of its snake like belly with the repulsors on max. Quicksilver had been benched when the thing had broken his leg and his sister was hovering near him and providing cover fire for them from the top of a nearby building. It was a big shock when he had come into their life. He had been found by the people of Sokovia and had been nursed back to health along with the city. He had joined up with them not long after he had gotten to New York. That had been a whole new headache but it didn’t matter now. The thing tried to jerk and jump but with two of its four legs hurt it didn’t get far. 

Thor was too quick for the swatting claws. The radio chatter was a welcome distraction from the boiling summer heat. It had been unbearably hot, even in the Tower. 

“We should name it.” Clint said for the tenth time. 

T’challa gave a little  _ ‘hum’ _ before saying, “You have said this many times. If you want to name it then do so. I do not think anyone else has any suggestions.” 

“Pain in my ass is a good one.” Bucky said as he fired six more shots into the things leg. Steve threw his shield and took off a stripe of skin, the wound bleeding purple hued blood and the thing gave a shriek of pain as Steve caught his shield. 

“I like that name.” Sam said as he flew by and threw some grenades at the thing. 

“But then what would we call, Clint?” Tony chuckled and Clint shot an arrow right past him. Tony turned in mid-air and blew him a kiss before going back to battle, “This thing is a pain in the ass though. Anyone have any suggestions?” 

Natasha answered, “It has to have a weak point other than the under belly.” 

Wanda came over the line, “Pietro thinks he knows.” 

“I am in pain, little sister.” Pietro whined, “Leave me to die in peace.” 

“You got shot hundreds of times and didn’t die you asshat.” she snapped at him, “So stop crying about a broken leg that will be healed in a few days once it is reset.” 

“Do you hear her, Mr. Hawkeye? She has such a bad mouth on her, my sweet sister.” 

Tony could feel Clint roll his eyes, “I. Am. Not. Your. Dad. Now where is this weak spot?” 

Thor slammed his hammer down into the things skull and it let out a loud shriek at being hit, taking a swipe at Thor, and the two super soldiers on the ground. 

“I saw it when I ran under it. A little gem thing, kind of greenish in color. No bigger than a marble. It was very cold when I passed under it. Something wicked was inside of it.” 

“Any chance this is a gift from your bat shit crazy basket case brother, M.C Hammer?” Tony asked. Thor came to hover near him and shot him a glare. 

“Loki is a child once more. He can do no more magic of this caliber than you or I can. He is safe and far from here at any rate. But this monster,” he looked at it and frowned, “it has not caused much damage to the surround area though it has had plenty of opportunity, but it seems to be very focused on us. Almost... _ obsessively _ so.” 

Steve cut in, adding his two-cents to the conversation like he always did, “We need a good game plan, Thor. If this thing, Pietro, saw is that small on something this big, then it's gotta flip so someone can yank that sucker out.” 

“The big guy can flip it, if it stops stomping around so damn much.” Bucky said as he rolled out of the way and shot off ten more shots from his guns at it, “The the king of the jungle over there can smash that thing to kingdom come.” 

“It is evil, my brother said so.” Wanda said as she stopped a water main from bursting, “We should wait for Vision to get back with Spider-man from that mission in Virginia.”

Tony pulled up his tracker in his helmet looking at how far they were from getting here. Twenty more minutes. They had to make it last until Vision got here. If that gem or whatever it could be was something like one of the infinity stones, then it would make sense for him to try and yank it out of the monster. But what if it  _ wasn’t _ a stone? What if it was something else? There were too many ‘what ifs’ anymore. He took a moment and collected his thoughts. He didn’t think about it for very long. 

“I’m grabbing it.” he said and took off past Thor; the demi-god trying to grab him. 

“Tony!” Steve said, “Wait for Vision. He can grab the stone!” 

“Sorry, Cap.” he said as he dodged the monster trying to grab him, shooting at it as he did, “we don’t have time to wait for him and baby Petey.” 

“Stark!” Steve snapped and Tony flew under the monster and had F.R.I.D.A.Y looking for the stone. Everyone else started in on him as well, each yelling. 

“This is like Ultron all over again with you, Stark.” Clint snapped. Tony rolled his eyes. They had never gotten off of that high horse. They would bring it up at any chance they could get. Between Ultron, his ego, and his sins of once building weapons, he never had a moment of calm with all of them back in the tower. He really didn’t care what they thought about him anymore and he would be  _ damned  _ if he ever apologized for The Accords.  

“Tony,” Natasha said with a scowl in her voice, “wait for Vision and Spider-Man! Let us help you, dammit!” 

“I got this!” Tony snapped back at them.

“Stark,” T’challa said sharply, “this is a team effort, not a way for you to show off  _ again _ . Think about the consequences.”

It was there just like Pietro had said it would be. 

“I  _ am _ thinking of the consequences.” Tony said. 

Natasha shrieked out, “ _ Long term _ , Stark not short ter—”

He reached out, the stone seeming to shrink away from his hand. He heard all of his team yell out his name as he curled his fingers around the stone. It felt like space; a cold and distant kind of cruelty that didn’t mean it. Like how it felt when he had flown that nuke into space. Cold and cruel and empty. The stone shot out a deep black light, like the kind of light you could see at the event horizon of a black hole, and then he was falling down and down and down. He landed in Time Square, along with everyone else. 

They hadn’t been anywhere near Time Square. He pushed himself up and he looked around. Everyone was looking at them, horror and fear on their faces. Something was wrong. As he got to his feet, a helicopter showed up, the search light glaring down at all of them. S.H.I.E.L.D was stamped on the tailend. A voice came over the intercom. 

“Surrender now and we will not be forced to subdue you!” 

A dozen agents in full on riot gear jumped down, guns drawn, ready to fire, aimed right at them. Tony flicked on his own megaphone from within the suit.

“To whom am I speaking?” 

“Director Nick Fury of the strategic, hazard, intervention, espionage, logistics directorate. You will stand down and surrender all weapons or we will  _ END _ you.” 

Tony zoomed in on who was talking and saw not Nick Fury, but a old white man with too much stubble and the eye patch was on the wrong eye. He turned to Steve, shutting off his megaphone, flipped open his mask, “That’s not our Nick Fury.”

Steve glared at him and dropped his shield, lifting up his hands and getting down to his knees. Bucky and Sam followed with glares and scowls on their faces. Natasha scoffed but did so as well. Clint threw his weapons a little harshly to the ground and sat down cross legged. Bruce was naked and kept his hands in front of him. Wanda and Pietro spoke to each other in their own native language before sitting like Clint. T’challa took off his mask and got to his knees, chin lifted up. Tony stepped out of the armor, and smiled at the agents. The helicopter landed and the fake Nick Fury stepped out and stalked right up to him, looking him up and down. 

“Who the hell are you?” the fake Nick sneered. 

Tony gave him a charming smile, “Tony. Tony Stark. You might have heard of me.” 

Nick gave him and smirk and took out a cigar to light, “And your friends, Stark?” 

“They can speak for themselves.” 

“I don’t hear ‘em talkin’.” 

“Steve Rogers. Captain America.” 

“James Barnes. Call me Bucky.” 

“Sam Wilson. They call me Falcon.” 

“Hawkeye.” 

“Scarlet Witch” 

“Quicksilver.” 

Bruce used one hand to wave, “Doctor Bruce Banner.” 

“Blackwidow.” 

“King T’challa of Wakanda.” 

The fake Nick chuckled, shaking his head and used the hand holding the cigar to point at Steve, “Steve Rogers.” 

Steve nodded.

“Steven Grant Rogers from Brooklyn?” 

Steve nodded again, more slowly, eyes narrowed in a glare. 

“Well, dip me in chocolate and throw me to those damn hellhounds in the UN.” he raised his voice, spreading his arms wide and laughing as he spoke, “We caught ourselves Captain Fucking America!” he turned to glare down at Steve, “We caught the man who killed the world.” 

“What?” they all asked. 

Tony and the rest were taken at gunpoint to a large black tank. This Nick let him grab his “sunglasses” before taking them away. Steve looked sick. Tony whispered, “F.R.I.D.A.Y, find me anything on The Avengers or anything on us individually. ASAP.” 

The one thing that Tony always counted on was that everyone liked to ride the “Bitch about the past mistakes that Tony made” train. He counted to ten in his head before Sam started it.

“You just  _ HAD _ to grab that stupid stone.” he said with a sneer. Bucky nodded his head. 

“Vision was on his way,” Clint sighed and rubbed at his temples, his handcuffs swinging under his chin, “all we had to do was  _ wait _ and we could have avoided this.” 

“Define  _ this _ , Barton.” Tony said with a cross of his legs and a fist under his chin, “‘Cause I don’t think any of us even knows where  _ or _ what this place is.” 

“Not fucking home that’s what and where this fucking is you prissy ass mamas boy.” Bucky snapped, his metal arm making the cuffs bend and expand as he clenched his fist.

“You want to say that again, you crazy assassin?” Tony asked. He put on his glasses and leaned back in his chair. 

“You heard me.” Bucky snapped. 

Tony flipped him the bird. 

Natasha told him something in Russian and he answered back. Tony watched as the data rolled in as everyone started in on him. It was like Ultron all over again. Why can’t he just trust them. Why and how and who and  **blah** ,  _ blah _ ,  **_blah_ ** . He tuned out until Steve kicked him in the shin to draw his attention back to them. 

“ **_OW_ ** ! Easy, Cap. I bruise easily. As you well know I do.” he said and pulled his legs away from Steves. Steve got a sour look on his face, no doubting remembering Siberia and how he and Bucky had almost killed him and left him for dead in the snow. 

“Tony, we need to know what is going on in this place.” 

“And I’m working on it.” he said with a frown on his face and a twist of his wrist as he explained the obvious to them all. 

“Like how you and Bruce worked on  _ Ultron _ ?” Sam snapped. 

Bruce ducked his head and then T’challa spoke up, “Let us fight ourselves when we are in a safer place. We need to look and act united, even when we are  _ not _ .” 

As the files came up he could feel his stomach turn to lead. Steve was looking at him and Tony took off his glasses. The agents in the back with them was watching them close. Steve didn’t bother to whisper, “Is it true? Did I kill the world?” 

Tony looked down at his sunglasses, wiping the glass with his thumb, “Yeah. Yeah, Cap. You did... _ fuck _ . You did some horrible shit in this world.” 

“What about the rest of us?” Natasha asked. 

Tony looked at her and answered, “You don’t want me to answer that, Tasha.” 

“Tony.” she warned. 

He gulped and answered, “You are a famous ballerina in Russia, married with kids and a nice house and everything. Clint works in a clinic for the hearing impaired, using his farm house as the clinic along with Laura, and holy shit all of his kids too. Wanda and Pietro are like, seven and living with their father. Sam…”

“What? What happened to me?” Sam asked, his arms crossed in front of him and a gun trained on his head. The agents didn’t move much and Tony could see how much they wanted to shoot them right there and then. But they didn’t. He didn’t know if it was because of orders from Fury, or if it was something else all together. 

“You’re dead.”

They were silent for a moment and then Bucky asked, “And everyone else?” 

“Brucey-bear is a doctor with no border in India at the moment, Betty is with him and Ross is retired down in Florida. T’challa is the youngest child of the current King of Wakanda.” 

“And you?” Steve asked. 

“I am the only child of Howard and Maria Stark, the leader of an island nation. I made Ultron in this time too.” he answered. Everyone was silent. Ultron had been a cluster fuck of megalithic proportions; he didn’t want to know how badly he had fucked up in this timeline too.

“You seem to fuck up in every universe, Stark.” Bucky said with a scowl.  

The rest of the ride was silent and each of them was taken to a different cell and nothing was said to them for hours. As Tony twirled his sunglasses on his finger the door to the cell opened and what stepped in made him pause. 

It was a very large Iron Man suit, but it wasn’t painted red and cold, or even black/grey like War Machine. It was black and gold, with no face. It had to duck down in order to get into the cell. Before he could speak the machine scanned him up and down three times, and then it spoke to him. Voice cold and hard as it addressed him. 

“You are Stark. You are not Toni though” the machine bent down at the waist, grabbing at his throat, “Explain or be terminated.” 

Tony grabbed at the machines wrist, taking a gasping breath and felt his feet leave the floor. The machine was at least nine feet tall. He kept looking at the opaque white mask, the glass had been made to look like it was white giving off the impression of having a face but there no face at all if you looked long enough and he could see that not even an attempt to make it look human had been put into this thing,“I’ll answer if you answer me first.” 

“What is your query?” 

“Where is Thor?”

The machine blinked, the blue lights making it looked like it had blinked by flicking on and off, “Who is that?”

“A friend. Asgardian. Tall, blonde, a real winner.” Tony joked as he still tried to pry his throat free of the machines iron grip. 

The machine dropped him and did something very human. It laughed and took a few steps away, a pseudo laugh making its shoulders move up and down, “There is no such thing as an  _ Asgardian _ here. Now, explain yourself, or be terminated.” 

Tony felt himself pale. They were way over their head and he had no idea how to get them out of it. Tony rubbed at his mouth and muttered, “Fuck.” 

********

Pepper was in her loose lime green yoga pants and her fluffy off-grey summer top, drinking straight from the coffee pot and watching the news. The helper bot that Toni had gifted to her for her U.N meeting; it was in charge of general upkeep of her rooms here at the U.N, and even making sure that she was always on time—as a representative for the Stoic Island Nation it was important that she not only have all of the information she needed before going back to the islands—and she also had make sure that her homeland was always showing its best face to the word and making sure that nothing would make anyone question how the nation was doing. Howard had given her the job when a failed…”vacation” had gone wrong. He could have killed her but he had given her a job instead, said he had been impressed with her poker face and how she almost killed herself to protect the information she had been trying to smuggle out almost twenty years ago. She had been given this job and she had gotten better with time. She was sitting on the couch, when the headline scrolled past the bottom of the screen. She slowly got off the couch as the headline rolled by again.  _ Tony Stark Falls out of the sky in New York City.  _ She dropped the entire mug of coffee and her helper bot turned to look at her. 

The voice was smooth, a low male tenure with a slight British accent, but it sounded nothing like how J.A.R.V.I.S did,  _ “ _ Do you need help with anything, Miss Pots? Shall I clean up that mess for you?” 

She turned to the helper bot, all shiny and chrome and with a pleasant voice and little blue lights glowing behind the white plastic sheet that made up its face. She hated it in that moment. She spoke to it with a tight voice, “Get. Me. Toni.  **FUCKING** .  _ STARK.  _ **_ON THE PHONE NOW!_ ** _ ”   _

The helper-bot pulled up the contact screen, the white background and black letters showing on its face for only a brief moment before the name Toni flashed as it connected. The phone answered on the third ring. Toni’s face came on the screen, her shiny metallic blue sunglasses perched on the top of her head. She mocha colored skin was shiny as the sun came in from the left side of wherever she was. Toni smiled as she saw Pepper, her heterochromic eyes bright. Pepper had never been able to look Toni in the eyes for too long. One eyes was such a deep ocean colored blue, while the right eyes was a very normal dark brown. 

The brown was a normal color for someone so tan all the time. The blue had thrown Pepper for a loop the first time they had met. Toni might have been Howard's daughter in mind but she looked like her mother. Maria had come from Spain only a few years after the war as a teenager with Howard. All bronze skin and black hair and smooth voice. Toni had dyed it to look white only a few days ago the last time they had spoke. Pepper needed answers. Toni smiled down at her phone screen and Pepper didn’t smile back at her as she jumped right into speaking, even though Pepper had called her. 

“Pepper!” she said, the phone moving as she walked. Pepper could hear the ocean in the background, “I missed you! Well, I miss you. I haven’t seen you since you left for the States, how have you been? T’challa and I are having a blast here in Wakanda. His sister got married! Shuri looked so pretty, I wish you could have been there. I think I saw T’chaka tear up a little when she kissed her husband. I know that Jakarra and his wife were crying. I could see them when they hugged Shuri. T’challa says that his brother doesn’t cry. No king cries—”

“Toni.” Pepper said. 

Toni kept going, not even bothering to stop, “—rhen the party after the wedding was great! I saw a dude eat fire! T’challa had to go to his super secret training so I’ve been walking around for like, three hours, doing nothing but window shopping and eating food. I tried deep fried scorpion. It was really good! But way too chewy. T’challa doesn’t eat them for the same reason. Jarvis and Ultron are here with me. Do you want to say “hi” to them? Or did you call me for another reason? Is it dad? Did something bad happen to him?” 

“Toni.” Pepper snapped and Toni clamped her mouth shut, her eyes wide, “Your father is fine. But I need you to have Ultron send a...black ops bot to the states on the double. We have a problem.” 

Toni was always happy. Her face stuck in a smile and her laugh lines deep. Pepper had rarely seen her unhappy or even sad. But she took her role as the next leader of the Stoic Islands very seriously. Her face became a blank slate. Cold and hard and unmoving. A machine with a human face. She only nodded her head and ended the call without any more words. The bot ended the call on the screen, face once again going dark and the lights went from blue to red. Ultron's voice came through the speakers. 

“Miss Potts.” he greeted. 

She declined her head in greeting. She was use to a much rougher and deeper voice coming from Ultron. But this helper bot was in the hive mind of Jarvis, not Ultron. They rarely jumped into each others hive minds, “Ultron. What can I do for you?” 

“I’m sure you know that both of us have already seen the news.” 

“I am. You two know a lot.” 

The robots didn’t have a face like how Jarvis and Ultron did. But she had spoken with them several times since Toni had them. She knew there faces well enough. Jarvis liked to keep his face open and kind, only becoming cold and cruel when the time came for it. Ultron had a look of smug superiority or cruel indifference. She could see his sneer even though he wasn’t here, “We are putting ourselves to the fullest possible use, which is all any conscious entity can do. Or do you disagree, Miss Potts?” 

Pepper gave a small snort and answered, “No need to get snippy, Ultron. Send the black operations bot. I’ll have this issue resolved in 72 hours.” 

The bot(all of the bots ranged from five to six feet tall, save for Ultron and Jarvis, who stood at impressive eight and nine feet tall along with black ops bots. And the W.A.R Machines, who had never seen action since being built) snapped out its hand so quick she didn’t see it until it had lifted her into the air, her feet kicking and she gasped for breath, “If you do not resolve this, Virginia Potts,  **_WE_ ** will.” 

The bot dropped her to the floor and the red faded away as the light and cheerful blue came back on. It seemed to look around and then down at her. It helped her to her feet and she rubbed at her throat. 

“Miss Potts!” the bot said as it checked her over, “Shall I call for a doctor?” 

“No.” she said and moved toward her closet, “Bring the car around. We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.” 

“If you insist, Miss Potts.” 

“I do.” 

“Very good, Miss Potts.” 

********

She liked to worry her lower lip. She did it when she was thinking, making and creating more of his kind, she did it when she was watching “scary movies” at home, the little bot Dummy in her lap and crushed to her chest, she did it when news that she should not worry over came to her. They had been built with the purpose to bring peace. To bring about a way of life that would allow humans to finally have the life that they craved and wanted. They wanted good food, a warm home, and a place to raise their offspring without fear of having anything horrible happen to them. Stoic Island had been made like that to try and capture that ideal. The human who were true natives worked for as long and as hard as they needed to. 

They were not told that they could not be sick. Work from home and come back when you are well. Their children were not left alone, they were allowed to raise them as they saw fit, and any and all abuse toward children was swiftly taken care of. They were taught by teachers, his kind once more, and taken care of to make sure that they saw their full potential. Food was given and never rationed beyond what was needed to keep a small island nation well stocked. Home was given freely so long as one worked. Everything was laid out in a logical way. 

Bullet trains to get everywhere quickly. Everything was reused to try and keep the land as non-toxic as possible. Howard Stark had built the nation with good intentions but little idea how to make that possible. Toni, sweet Toni, she had seen the bright and wonderful future the future beyond the event horizon, and had taken to running toward it. She had wanted nothing but for those under her protection to be safe from the world. A shield around the whole of the world; inside of it there would be no war. No pain.

Everything would be as perfect as it could be. But she knew that one could not force peace onto others no matter how well meaning it was meant to be. So she let the world come and go as it pleased; her people never leaving or complaining. Why would they want to? The whole island had been built with the idea to make human life enjoyable but fullining. The humans worked because they  _ chose _ too. They went to school because they  _ chose _ to. 

They left and came back because they  _ chose _ to. She had given them choice and they saw it as the burden it truly was. The world she made for them was shiny and chrome, clean and cool and well taken care of, while the other option present to them was the world beyond the island, full of too many mistakes. They had no desire to leave the small haven that had been carved out for them. She was by no means a dictator, she did not demand their obedience because they gave it freely. She gave them protection, protection born from a personal loss that she had never dealt with, but it was protection of the highest possible calibre. Maria Stark had died when Tony was five. 

Too young to understand why her mother had been taken from her, but old enough to understand that The Traitor, the former Captain America had done it. He had been after Howard, but he had not been there when The Traitor had stormed into their island and killed so many people with the intent to kill Howard. Maria and Toni were there though, and they hadn’t been prepared for his attack. Maria died protecting her child and Toni forever remembered the fear of losing someone she loved. He understood that fear of lose. Jarvis did as well. It wasn’t love that drove her to being a hero to her people or maybe it was. 

He could not speculate about it, but he understood it. Toni kept looking at her phone the black screen shining her reflection back at her. Dummy was in her backpack, beeping and cooing at her. He had been her first invention, a first draft A.I who would never stop living in a five year old's world. He could tell when she was upset though and always wanted to comfort her when he was near and she was upset. She had gone to the nearest bench and had sat down, looking at her phone with a lost expression on her face. They stood at her sides ready to leave when she was. 

She clutched her phone tightly and then stood in one swift motion, striding down the street with her bright neon pink sneakers blazing a trail as she began to make quick phone calls. She liked to walk and think at the same time. The hotel was almost two miles from their current position but they knew Toni didn’t care. She could reach the hotel in about an hour and the black-ops bot would have found at least one flaw in this imposter that had fallen from the sky. To pack would take her about half an hour. She would miss some things and they would pack them and she would ask if they packed them knowing that they had packed them when she had forgotten to. She was human and was prone to missing things. 

They were not human, she never had to worry about them missing anything. She called Mr. Hogan Happy to get the jet she didn’t like to fly in (since she didn’t like to fly at all) ready to leave in about an hour. She called her father to let him know she was coming home early from her two week vacation. She also left a voicemail for T’challa to let him know she was leaving due to a problem that was going to affect the Stoic Islands. She promised to call him back and let him know anything if  _ anything _ happened. The hotel was glass and metal and less impressive than the ones Jarvis had designed but it was a human effort and they would only give it so much of its due. She threw open her closet and threw her clothing onto the bed before lugging the three suitcases out of the bottom and throwing it on the bed next to her clothes. 

Jarvis began to help her by getting her underclothing and training bras out of the drawers. He began to pick up her dirty clothing from the bathroom and put it in the second suitcase she had brought with her for transporting dirty clothing back home. The third was going to be used for gifts to bring back but plans had changed and she hadn’t the time to try and find gifts to bring back home. As she began to fold a white dress with a sunflower print on the bottom her phone rang and she looked at it. He and Jarvis were connected to her phone and the mainframe that made up to the Stoic Islands. Pepper was calling her again. She finished folding the dress and put it in the suitcase before picking up the phone and holding it with her shoulder. 

He took out her shampoo, her lotion, and all of her bathroom items toward the suitcase and packed it. She talked as she packed her clothing, not even bothering to tell them not to listen. They were her war council, her peacekeepers, her nannies, her closest and oldest friends, her children. She hide nothing from them and they hide nothing from her. To do so would be blasphemy. The whole of the world could burn but if she was safe then they would be content. But they would never tell her that, for her heart bled for the whole of the world, and she would surely weep if she knew about their callous thoughts when other humans were part of the equation. 

“Hi, Pepper.” 

They were on the line as well, but Pepper didn’t need to know that. Pepper sounded like she was walking on a smooth tile floor in her Gucci heels, steps quick but sure as she spoke, “The bot ran several test on this “Tony Stark” that fell out of the sky.”  

“What did the bot find?” she asked as she folded up a black band t-shirt. 

“His DNA matches yours, except the marker for gender but that’s more a no duh kind of thing. He is the biological child of Howard and Maria Stark. But there is another problem that we might end up facing here. Truth be told, I am not sure I want to tell you but...I know if I tell Howard, he might do something, well...rash.” 

Toni stopped folding a bright red shirt, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before asking softly, “Tell me, please, Pepper. I need to know. Daddy’s…” she dropped the shirt and sat down heavily on the bed, rubbing her face before continuing, “Pepper, you’ve seen him. He’s so old now. He can’t live forever and his heart can’t take anymore surprises from anyone. Tell me.” 

“S.H.I.E.L.D has custody of this...Steven Grant Rogers. He is being detained in a maximum level cell and they are not willing to parley with me for him. I saw Peggy Carter as well. Toni...I don’t—” Pepper voiced her concerns but Toni cut her off. 

“I’ll deal with it.” Toni cut her off with a heavy sigh, “Don’t worry about him, Pep. Get the other Tony Stark and...whoever else you can out and on a plane back home ASAP. I’ll see if I can pull some strings for Mr. Rogers.” 

Pepper seemed to stop walking and her voice was very soft, “Toni, I don’t think this man is the same man who killed your mother.” 

“I don’t care. I want him; he’s  _ mine _ . I’ll call you later.” 

Pepper continued walked, her heels once more  _ click, clicking  _ on the floor, “ _ Please _ be careful, Toni.” 

“Pepper,” Toni said with a smile as she stood, a small chuckle in her voice, “come on. It’s  _ me _ . I’m the luckiest bitch in the world.” 

Pepper chuckled as well, “I know. And besides, I know Jarvis and Ultron are there with you. You’ll be fine. I’ll see you soon.” 

“Bye.” 

“Stay safe, Toni.” 

Toni hung up and then threw her phone down onto the pillow before going to back to folding. Jarvis looked at Ultron and he nodded his head. 

“Ma’am?” he asked her softly. 

“I’m going to be calling my godmother in a few, Ultron. I want to be fully packed before I do.” she said as a way of answer. 

“Shall I get your sleeping pills ready for your flight back to the islands?” he asked her. 

She nodded her head as she kept folding, “Yeah. I’ll take it on the way to the airport. Can one of you call a cab?” 

“Of course.” Jarvis said, already haven called one to take them back to the jet. 

“If I may ask,” he began and zipped up the second suitcase and putting it on top of the other that held the dirty clothing and then the empty one on top tying them all together with a flourish, “what are you going to tell Mrs. Carter?” 

Toni chewed her bottom lip and then answered, “The truth. I’ll just tell her the truth.”

**************

The woman on the TV was speaking about the story that had taken the world by storm. Tony Stark and a man calling himself Captain America had fallen from the sky in New York City. Sharon Carter, a woman working for S.H.I.E.L.D, was answering questions. 

“And now, we go live to our correspondent on the ground, Fern Shyamalan. Fern?” 

A very attractive Indian woman was shown and she nodded before going to speak with Sharon, “Thank you, Ann-Mary. I am here with Sharon Carter, a senior member of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the granddaughter of the famous Peggy Carter, the founder of our homeland security team. Sharon, what can you tell us about the incident that happened earlier today?” 

Sharon looked like Peggy in the fact that she had the same nose, the same slant to her eyes, and her mouth was very similarly shaped. She was blonde instead of burnette like Peggy; her hair cut into a short undercut that had been slicked back, a jagged scar running down the lower half of her right jaw, and her eyes were hard with untold horrors of war. She wore all black and held herself as straight and tall as any soldier. She didn’t even try to smile, she only spoke carefully and cooly to the question that had posed to her by the reporter, “Before we can begin, it is of the utmost importance that you understand that there are some things that I can not tell you, since it is a matter of national safety.” 

“Of course.” 

“The information we have is general at this point but are striving to learn more to ease the worry of the public. Today at about three in the afternoon a large black cloud that had high levels of radiation was seen over Times Square. At the time, we thought it was the work of The Traitor, also known as Steve Rogers, but this was quickly proven to be incorrect. Several unknown people claiming to be other, living and productive members of society, fell from the cloud.” Sharon explained to Fern. 

Fern nodded her head at the information and brough the mic back to her own mouth as she took it away from Sharon's mouth, “From what we have been told, one of them is calling himself Tony Stark. Can you tell us anything about that?” 

Sharon gave a little smirk, looking more like a sneer on her face, “Toni Stark is a fourteen year old girl that is a well known humanitarian. From what the U.N representative for the Stoic Islands, Virginia Potts, has told us, she is currently in Wakanda attending a royal wedding for T’chaka’s only daughter. The man who fell from the sky is  _ not  _ Miss Stark.” 

“And what about the man claiming to be Steve Rogers?” 

Sharon narrowed her eyes, “We can not discuss this at this time.” 

“Because of the most recent threats from Hydra?” 

And that threat had come only last week with a very nice hand written letter addressing the President. The letter had put everyone on high alert and with the theft of nuclear bombs only a few days ago, it was a very realistic question. Sharon would love to talk about it, but until the higher ups were done arguing about play nice with Toni Stark for a shipment of her Iron Legion bots, nothing was being done except being extra paranoid. Sharon knew that her grandmother would tell Toni to give a shipment to the states and Toni would do it. Toni Stark was not a woman who rallied around the frenzy of war but was vocal person about peace. Sharon knew that Toni said one thing and her two A.I did another. But that wasn’t something the general populace needed to worry about. 

“We can’t say.” 

“What else can you tell us?” 

“We are trying to get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can. We are looking into all of these claims made by these...super powered individuals. At this time, unfortunately, we have very limited information and what we do have isn’t enough to calm the panic of the public, but we are working round the clock to get to the bottom of this. That is all the time I have at the moment.” 

The TV was shut off and Steve drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair, slowly and evenly paced. He was using his other hand that he had curled into a fist, to hold his head up as he watched the television. His second in command came in looking at the blank TV and then at the others all stacked onto each other around the giant screen in the middle of the room, all tuned into news stations from every nation in the world in every language of the world to cover this event that had happened only three days ago. He looked at Steve—a man with one blind eye due a rocket explosion in Korea, a short but well kept beard that he prided himself on, and a smirk that made women weak in the knees assuming they lived after looking at him at all—and then lowered his own eyes before speaking. 

“What shall we do, Commander Rogers?” 

Steve could feel but let a smirk curl over his face, “I am interested in what you think we should do, Rhodes.” 

James seemed to think for a moment before answering slowly, knowing how quickly Steve could change moods—he was still aware of the missing arm that Steve had taken from him, the metal one was a heavy reminder to mind his tone, “We should go visit this... _ other _ Tony Stark. The original Toni is not an easy target at this time.” 

“No. Sweet Toni is still far from our grasp.” Steve said with a serene smile  and got up from his throne, “But I can see it, the future we strive for, Rhodey. I see a future that is the best course for human history. But Toni is too... _ naive _ to understand it yet. We could show her the way, but not yet, not until we show her how  _ easy _ is it to burn down the world.” 

And how easy it would be. All he had to do was make them think he was going to do something horrible and the whole world would destroy itself. Plant a little lie about spies in the general populace and the populace will run rampant in a frenzied witch hunt to find them; even when there are no spies to be found. Steal nukes and wait, the world will sweat it out. The best laid plans are the ones that require little effort to make work. Because humans like to hate each other. All they need is an excuse to point to the finger and the rest is human history in a nutshell. 

“What are your orders, sir?” Rhodey asked. Steve pulled his shield onto his back, he had painted it all black and for each kill he had gotten he had put a tally mark on it. He made sure his gun was loaded before putting it in its holster at his thigh.

“I think it’s time we go and pay a visit to my old stomping grounds. I want to talk to this man who claims to be me.” Steve said.

*************************

Peggy looks over the documents page by page, and she highlights a few passages and then looks up at the people in front of her. Representatives from Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Genosha, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Imaya, Japan, Latveria, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,The Principality of Madripoor, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sokovia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wakanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In total, other than her, there was a total of ninety-four countries calling for the registration of all super humans that did not have citizenship in a country that allowed it since the general populace was going to be more or less defenseless against them. Genosh, Latveria, and the Stoic Islands had this kind of law in place since more than half of the populace was superhuman. She took off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. She could see where they coming from. Not everyone who was born different was going to use their new powers to do good. And it was hard to accept people who were different without them being able to fly or read minds or bend metal. 

“These Accords, as you call them,” she said into the translation mic, folding her hands on top of the documents, “what guarantee is there for those who sign that they will not be persecuted for being different or that their families will not come to harm with them singing their life away into government control?” 

While her translator spoke her words, she saw that the woman from Genosha frowned and then Peggy really looked at her. Luna, the mother of Pietro and Wanda, the daughter of Magneto. She was wearing a power dampening bracelet. She was too wise to try and cause trouble in a UN meeting room like this. She spoke clearly and strongly, her accent thick, “While my country will not harm any who sign, the general consensus is that the signing will be volunteer based and all information upon signing will become part of the permanent black list files of every country. The people who sign are willing, no, asking to become heroes, and that is a job that should be ranked in importance such a military and police work. They are risking their lives to protect their countries and its citizens; from all threats both domestic and foreign.” 

“As it stands, all of those currently present in this meeting have signed the document in front of you, and while we know you must speak with your leader about this before any decision can be made, we would also like to ask a favor.” the translator in her ear sparked to life and the representative from Zambia spoke. She thinks that the tribe name of the representative was Luwi but Peggy could be wrong. 

The woman from Poland, Agnieska her name plate said if Peggy squinted her eyes, said with a smile on her face, “A small favor.” 

“We have a history of not knowing how to approach the proper channels but, and forgive me for saying so, you wouldn’t have this problem.” Sagira, the representative from Egypt said with a bored look on his face, and cleaning his nails. Peggy raised an eyebrow. She had a feeling she knew what they were going to ask her. 

“We have attempted to do in Wakanda but...well.” the man said with a sheepish smile. 

Peggy gave them all a condescending smile, “You want me to get Tonu to sign because you know that if you send it to Miss Potts, Jarvis or Ultron they won’t let her see it until they have had a chance to rip it apart.” 

The whole room looks down or away and she rubs at her eyes. 


	2. level two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice fell down the rabbit hole. Tony thinks he understands how she felt about all of that now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the second re-written chapter. please enjoy!

**Level II: Universes with different physical constants**

Bubble universes — every disk represents a bubble universe. Our universe is represented by one of the disks.

Universe 1 to Universe 6 represent bubble universes. Five of them have different physical constants than our universe has.

In the chaotic inflation theory, a variant of the cosmic inflation theory, the multiverse as a whole is stretching and will continue doing so forever,but some regions of space stop stretching and form distinct bubbles (like gas pockets in a loaf of rising bread). Such bubbles are embryonic level I multiverses. Linde and Vanchurin calculated the number of these universes to be on the scale of 10 1010,000,000

Different bubbles may experience different spontaneous symmetry breaking, which results in different properties, such as different physical constants.

Level II also includes John Archibald Wheeler's oscillatory universe theory and Lee Smolin's fecund universes theory.

*************************

Over the city of Wakanda, back when his father had been young, doubt and great dread had hung in the air like a fog. Fair weather and clear sun had seemed but a mockery to men whose days held little hope and who looked each morning for news of doom. Their lord was dead and burned; dead lay the king in the royal citadel, and the new king, his father, had come to them in the night upon his grandfather's passing. The shadow of the mountains had hidden them and no messenger had returned nor any rumor of what was passing in the brooding lands engaged in war. To be told this story so many times, T’challa could tell it backwards, but it was a story he was told often to remind him  **WHY** he and Toni were friends. World War Two came and stayed and the Nazi’s turned their eyes to their nation as Hitler tried expand down in the African nations. Howard Stark had offered his help back then and was turned down; for what had they known about the man before he had been such a good and trusted friend to their nation? 

They had beaten back the Nazi’s and kept their land but it had left them exhausted and their resources few, along with their own army. But they had no outside help, no allies to help them. The UN would not hear of their grievances, and many years went by with no allies and no help. Then Stark came again, a leader of a new nation and held out his hand, a smile on his face. His father was ready to be backstabbed when they shook hands but the knife never came. Stark had married and had a child, a girl, about his age. Toni had been a small wisp of too many words, too much crazy, and had a little robot that was poorly made, called Dummy.

She had smiled and talked and  **talked** . And  _ talked _ . And  **_talked_ ** . T’challa had wanted to kill her as a child to shut her up, he still did sometimes even now that he was older. Then her mother died, killed by The Traitor, the former Captain America. They went to her funeral and Toni had a thick bandage covering her left cheek, a cast on her chest and her eyes had been haunted by the horror she had seen, hugging her sentiate robot to her chest, tears and snot on her face as they cremated Maria Stark. His mother had told him to try and be nice to Toni; she was hurting emotionally and physically. 

So as she sat on her swing set in the wide area of beach behind her destroyed home, at the after party for the funeral, he sat next to her and they gently swung in the swings together, feet never leaving the ground. She never stopped being sad about what had happened, and he had never tried to stop being her friend; not that he could even if he tried. Then the day came when Jarvis died and she suddenly became a ball of life again. She threw herself into her work, and they had remained friends even as what she was telling him seemed impossible; scan his brain as he lay dying of cancer and then transfer it to a new body later. The birth of Jarvis and Ultron had made him uneasy, but their presence in her life had helped her. The treaty between their nations stayed strong and she used what they gave her to make The Iron Legion and she in turn gave them Iron Legion bots to help protect their country should they ever need them to. The older they got the more they grew closer and he loved her like a sister. 

So when he heard her voicemail he told his father that he was going to help her. She was Toni Stark, heaven help him, she was Toni Stark and that was reason enough to get on a plane to the Stoic Island and see what has happened to his friend. As they flew through the skies he called Pepper and when she answered he jumped right into finding out what had happened. Pepper only told him that Toni was taking care of a problem that had fallen from the sky. She would not explain what she meant and so he drummed his fingers on his chair arm as they flew. Heaven help him, this girl would be the death of him. He loved her though, God in Heaven, he loved her. 

“What have you gotten yourself into, Toni?” he muttered to himself. 

The cell phone in his pocket began to ring and he fished it out to look at the caller ID. Ramonda was calling him. His step-mother had never made him call her his mother, but she had taken her role as a mother well and his brother and he had been raised just as if their own mother had never pass. The baby, Shuri, was their half sister but they didn’t think of her as such. He answered the phone and he could hear Shuri cooing to Ramonda on the other line. He smiled. 

“Hello mother.”

Ramonda cooed at Shuri over the line and then spoke softly, “T’challa, did you take your brother with you to go and speak to Toni?” 

“Yes, but Jakarra is the only one who can fly a plane.” 

Ramonda sighed, “T’challa, she has a lot on her plate at the moment. She is finally being given your father's proposal for the world at large with people born with powers. I imagine that between reading that and what happened in New York will draw her attention.” 

T’challa frowned down at his phone, “What happened in New York?” 

“You have a TV in the jet, don’t you? Turn into the news.” 

T’challa did so and all across the bottom it was speaking of the people who had fallen out of the sky. People claiming to be her and him and  _ that man  _ had all fallen from the sky. He watched the screen for a long moment, “I will call you back, mother.” 

“Please do. And tell Toni hello. From me and Shuri, oh yes, say hello baby.” 

The call ended and he watched as several news anchors argue back and forth on the screen. He knew two people sitting at the table talking. Christine Everhart and J. Jonah Jameson. The three other people he did not know. And he had tuned in, in the middle of an argument. 

“...I just don’t think that we should let this slide! I mean how do we know this isn’t some plot against us by the Stoic Islands and Wakanda both?” the other woman on the panel snapped 

Jameson rolled his eyes, “I will be the first to admit that I don’t like Howard Stark and T’chaka of Wakanda has never been an open and friendly man, but why would they gamble with their children's lives like this? Nobody who has kids would willingly put them in danger.” 

“The question we need to ask ourselves is how does The Traitor factor into all of this. Or has everyone already forgotten what he did to Sokovia ten years ago? Starting a civil war, stealing and re-selling knock-off Hammer tech, the assassination of the royal family of Sokovia and, worst of all, he tried to move a technological powerhouse. Not one but  _ two  _ at the same time!” the African-American man said as he used his hand to speak. 

Everhart nodded her head, her short pixie cut slicked back, “We lost a lot of people during that time. Most notable was the royal family of Sokovia, Queen N’yami of Wakanda and Maria Stark of the Stoic Islands. If we are being truthful, I would wager money on The Traitor before either of those nations.” 

“And yet they hold the biggest grudge against us.” the other woman hissed. 

Jameson looked at her, “It’s not a grudge, but when we wouldn’t even say they were their own sovereign nations, I imagine they took it a little offensively.”

“I agree.” Everhart said as she took a sip of her coffee. 

T’challa shut off the TV. He needed to get to Toni. 

****************

“You are a Stark. You are not Toni though” the machine bent down at the waist, grabbing at his throat, “Explain or be terminated.” 

Tony grabbed at the machines wrist, taking a gasping breath and felt his feet leave the floor as it lifted him to its eye level. The machine was at least seven feet tall. He kept looking at the opaque white mask, no face at all, not even an attempt to make it look human, an emotionless thing, “I’ll answer if you answer me first.” 

“What is your query?” 

“Where is Thor?”

The machine blinked, the blue lights a large blink on and then off, “Who is that?”

“A friend. Asgardian. Tall, blonde, a real winner.” Tony joked as he tried to draw in breath while the metal fingers squeezed around his windpipe. 

The machine dropped him and did something very human. It laughed and took a few steps away, a pseudo laugh making its shoulders move up and down, “There is no such thing as an  _ Asgardian _ here. Now, explain yourself, or be terminated; I will not ask again.” 

Tony felt himself pale. They were way over their head and he had no idea how to get them out of it. Tony rubbed at his mouth and muttered, “Fuck.” This was bad. Was this another world? But then what does that mean? In this world he was a woman and she had made not only Ultron, but she had made a project he had scraped years ago. 

Silent machines that were made for black ops. Shady stuff that no government wanted to talk about. Steve was a man that the whole world wanted dead. What kind of fucked up reality did they drop into? Tony climbed to his feet and had to think quickly as this thing began to glow. It was powering up. He was going to be a pile of ash in two seconds if he didn’t start singing. 

He couldn’t lie to this thing, he had built them to know if you were lying. He had to tell it the truth and he really didn’t want to do that. 

The truth could be stretched though. 

So he sat down on the simple metal cot in the room and told it the truth. A version of it anyway. It stopped glowing as it listened to him and his story. Tony wasn’t sure how long he talked but it had to be a long ass time since once the bot left his throat felt like he had gone ten rounds in a fight against a basket of sandpaper and glass. He could guess how long he had been in the cell though by how often they brought him food and water. The food was paper thin and bland and tasted like air, but it was food. Two days, maybe three. 

On the second day or the third if he was being honest with himself, the door to the cell opened and two of the black op bots and a very small, white Stark bot stood on the other side. The two black ops said nothing but the white bot sounded like a female JARVIS, almost like a different version of Friday. 

She nodded her head at him, “Please follow me, Mr. Stark. We must finish filing the paperwork before you may leave.” 

Tony followed them with his hands in his pockets, behind the white bot and flanked by the two black ops. They took him to a very nice looking office with a view of the bay. A woman with fading red hair was at the window, her back to him. The white bot went to her and spoke softly, the woman didn’t turn her head. She wore a pale blue pant suit. The two others forced him into a chair and then all three left. The woman moved and took out a gun, placing it on the desk with a large snap as the metal meet the wood. 

The room was bathed in a tense silence. Tony had seen guns all his life. Making them and having them pointed at him. He was an old hat at being the object of everyone's ire, but he didn’t know what this woman was going to do because he had no idea what this  _ other  _ Tony Stark had done in this world. This woman wasn’t going to be any different though from every other kidnapper he had ever faced. He just had make the right move. And wait. 

That was going to be the hardest part about this, was the waiting. 

“So,” Tony said and crossed his legs, folding his hands to rest over his stomach, “how does this work? I am going to talk to you and then you kill me? Do I stay in that cell and rot to death from bland food and warm water? What happens to my friends?” 

The woman barely even turned her head to speak to him, “Are they your friends? From what they say about you one does wonder.” 

Tony smirked, “With friends like those who needs enemies?” 

“Those who need allies.” 

“Touche.” 

“So, how does this work, Mr. Stark?” 

“Well, get me a scotch on the rocks and we’ll see.” 

The woman turned and Tony felt his whole world spin as she spoke, “This is how it works, Mr. Stark. You do as I say and you might just live.” 

“But...no,  _ no _ , it can’t be.”

“Are you Tony Stark?” 

“It can’t be you.” 

She frowned at him, “Tony Stark? Is that or is that not your name?” 

“Pepper!” he said as he jerked in his seat, almost leaving it and getting to his feet, he had never been so happy to see her. Even when she had left he had only wanted her to be happy. That was all he had ever wanted for anyone, “It’s me! It’s Tony!” 

She narrowed her eyes at him with a scowl, “Please come with me. Toni Stark would like to see you now.” 

“Toni...Stark?” he said. He had seen her name but he had never liked his name, but Tony was something that Jarvis, the human Jarvis, had called him. This woman though, why would she go by a shorter name? Not unless what happened to him had happened to this version of him too. 

“Yes. Toni Stark. The woman who is going to change the world.” Pepper says and she sounds very angry and also very impatient. She grabbed her gun and strode to the door like she owned the place. Tony turned in his seat as she walked past him. 

“Where’s Steve?” 

Pepper stopped with her hand on the door, “Hopefully dead.” 

Tony didn’t understand. He understood what this version of Steve had done but even these people must see that their Steve and the Steve he knew where two  _ totally _ different people. They had to see that. Steve was a boy scout, clean shaven and polite. A killer in a kid's body, even if he was wrong about the accords. The other one,  _ God _ , the other one. He was a holy terror to behold, from what Tony had seen in the files. One blind eye, a beard, and from what Tony had understood some part of him wasn’t human. Like Bucky. 

“Let me try that again. Where is  _ my _ Steve?” 

Pepper turned to glare at him, “Toni had to pull a lot of strings to get you and all your little  _ friends  _ out from under the thumb of SHIELD. Do not try and ask for more when you do not deserve the kindness already freely given to you.” 

Toni stood up, “But not Steve.” 

“Mr. Stark, listen to me very,  _ very,  _ carefully. In five minutes a chopper will be here to fly us down to Florida and then a private plan to take us to the Stoic Islands. You can get on these modes of transport freely, or I can have those two Silencers drug you and drag you to see the woman that I respect and who is trying to change the world.” 

Tony snapped at her, “By making death machines?” 

“Toni doesn’t make death machines.” Pepper snapped at him and folded her arms over her chest as she turned sharply to glare at him, “Those...things at her side are machines but she won’t let them kill anyone. She is in control.” 

“How? How does she control Ultron? Huh? What did she do to keep them in line?” 

Pepper lowered her arms, “How do you know about Ultron?” 

“Because I made him and he almost killed millions of people!” 

Pepper gave a small snort and a scowl was on her face, “Then I guess she’s a better person than you at making the world a better place.” 

“A.I are like people! They have the potential to be just as cruel and evil as any man. So how did she control them? How is she doing this magic trick?” Tony grit out at her trying to keep his temper in line. 

Pepper smirked at him, “She made them feel guilt.” 

***************

Howard sometimes forgot that Toni was fourteen. She spoke her mind and pulled her punches, and she saw the event horizon where the future of peace slept. She had seen the event horizon, she had heard the future in her dreams even as a child. He remembers the first time she spoke. Barely a year old and she was playing on her mat, moving the blocks this way and that trying to make the best bridge. She had looked at Maria and said, “Ma!” She had grown so fast after that it seemed. 

Dummy had been a marvel. She was five and her understanding of how anatomy was...subpar. Dummy was a heavy block with awkward limbs and sticky joints. It spoke in beeps and clicks. A.I no smarter than a child since a child made it and wanted a friend. Toni had only been five. Three months later Maria died at the hands of Steve Rogers. 

Howard missed his old friend, but the man who killed his wife and almost killed his daughter was a friend no more. Maria had thrown Toni into the ocean and the bullet that killed her missed Toni. Maria had gotten Steve though, he had been told by Toni much later. Her mother had grabbed a kitchen knife and slashed at his throat before he had shot her. Only his super soldier blood had saved him but the scar had stayed, Toni said. She saw it with her own eyes. Howard wishes that he had never left to go and see T’chaka to speak of his proposal that he was planning on presenting to the UN. 

He should have been there, but he wasn’t. Even now as Toni paced outside on the balcony of the Cloud Tower—a name the people had given the spire of light and data and metal. Howard had tried to move them out many times but the people wanted them here. He did as they asked, just as Toni did—she bites her nails like her mother used to. Ultron and Jarvis stand on either side of the balcony, watching. Howard has often, in his own head, compared them to children born too close together. They want their mother's attention for themselves only and they do not want to share. 

They do not understand that she loves them the same and neither of them are her favorite. It is why they work so hard to be human, to be great. Children worked hard to impress their parents. Howard used his cane to limp toward her and she didn’t even notice. Ultron and Jarvis did though, their heads snapping up at him at his slow shuffling approach. When he comes to stand at the entrance to the balcony Toni catches him out of the corner of her eye and she turns to him, spitting out the nail she had been biting, and smiles at him. The folds of her cheeks push up into her eyes, making them wrinkle. 

He tries to picture his daughter old and finds he can not do it. He can see her older, a young woman fully grown, but not an old woman grey with wisdom. He had a feeling Toni will never be old. He likes to imagine that she finds a way to forever cheat death. He knows that is not the case. Steve had killed Maria for no other reason than to make him suffer. Toni had been spared and kept safe because of the island and her own Iron Legion, but Steve still had a vendetta out for him and his family. 

He didn’t want to think that Toni would never grow old because she would die young. She looks down at her nails and he smiles at her. 

“I bite them too much.” she says sheepishly, “I know it's a bad habit.” 

Maria had been a smoker on par with it being a mandate of her religion, save for when she was pregnant with Toni, and he had been a lucky drunk the whole later part of his life, “Vices and virtues, darling. On the grand scale, nail biting is hardly even worth a passing thought.” 

Toni looks up at him and smiles. Her eyes are not his and they are not Marias either. They are wholly hers and hers alone. Heterochromia is a wonder to see and behold but rarely, Howard thinks, can it be explained without the aid of science and faith for why she was born with it. Toni always smiles and he thinks that it is because she doesn’t know how to let her sadness take her. Too many people live in her head, sadness has no room to voice its opinions. Not when she can see and hear a future for the world. She is barefoot and she scuffs at the ground in front of her with her heel, “Pepper told you, huh?” 

“Miss Potts is very good at her job. She told me long before you called Peggy and long before you pulled those strings to get those people out.” he says and moves to the lounge chair in one of the corners. Toni stays standing and hooks one of her hands behind her back and holds onto her other elbow. She looks too young to be a world leader. Howard is all but retired at this point and most of their nation knows it. Toni smiles and nods and keeps the other people who have tried to kill them and undermine them in the past away. 

Jarvis keeps it—seven large islands and two small ones, all connected and under the same kind of protection that the main island was; something that Toni had built when he hadn’t been paying attention—all running smooth and clean and calm. Ultron...Howard doesn’t like to dwell on Ultron. Secret and dark. Black Operations. The Silencers. The War Machines hidden under the city, protecting the power source Toni had made. A blue light.

She had never named it but the people had. The Arc which kept them afloat on their city of dreams. Machines and humans living and working together all the time. Howard knew it wasn’t perfect but it was close. People just had to unlearn their prejudices, a long and hard road but it was possible. If only it was as easy as it was said. 

“Are you mad?” she asks him. Howard has gotten mad at her before, she is no stranger to his ire when she has done something stupid. He leans on the soft cushions of the lounge chair and watches as the clouds roll over the Indian Ocean. To the east of them lie the Seychelles Islands, and south-east of that is Wakanda. It’s going to rain. 

“No. Yes. A little of both but I’m far too old to care.” he says. 

Toni scoffs and crosses her arms, the oversized shirt—light grey and faded with some band name he had loved in the eighties—curls and twist. She is wearing loose fitting sleep pants that show off her ankles and part of her calves. Her hair is down and messy and she looks too at ease with the coming storm, “You’re not old.” 

“Toni, darling, love of my life and light of my universe,” he says and places his hand over his heart as he leans on the armrest to look at her, “I am almost eighty-seven years old. I was in world war two, I helped us in the Korean and Vietnam wars—”

“Which we lost.” Toni says with a smirk and Howard rolls his eyes. 

“—the Cold War, which we somehow got dragged into along with Wakanda. I have seen a long and bloody history and I am tired. All I can do now is offer up my sage advice.” 

“Like don’t drink expired milk?” 

“Yes.” 

“Brush your teeth to avoid plaque and gum disease?” 

“Like,” Howard says with a chuckle as he looks at her properly, “knowing when to fold and when to bluff. These...people...who claim to be you and...him, we know nothing of them, Toni. At the moment we have the advantage of this being your home and their ignorance. Let them tell  _ you  _ everything. Give nothing away.” 

“Mr. Stark has a point.” Jarvis says softly and Toni looks at him and then sighs before coming to sit near his aching knees. She is always so warm. 

“Being sneaky is hard.” she says, “It’s just easier to show everyone what you mean instead of trying to tell them.” 

“These people are our enemies until proven otherwise.” Ultron says with a smirk on his metal face. Dummy stumbles in with a  _ do-do-dodo-do! _

“I guess. It’s not like it can get any worse.” Toni mumbles as she picks Dummy up and places him on her lap. He coos and beeps at her and she only holds him closer. He had been there when Maria had been killed. 

Jarvis snaps his head out toward the horizon and his eyes seem to glow. He looks down at Toni, “Prince T’challa has arrived.” 

“Well,” Ultron chuckles as he pushes his body away from the balcony railing, “I guess things can get worse.” 


	3. level three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> third chapter of the re-write.

**Level III: Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics**

Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation ( **MWI** ) is one of several mainstream interpretations of quantum mechanics.

In brief, one aspect of quantum mechanics is that certain observations cannot be predicted absolutely. Instead, there is a range of possible observations, each with a different probability. According to the MWI, each of these possible observations corresponds to a different universe. Suppose a six-sided die is thrown and that the result of the throw corresponds to a quantum mechanics observable. All six possible ways the die can fall correspond to six different universes.

Tegmark argues that a Level III multiverse does not contain more possibilities in the Hubble volume than a Level I or Level II multiverse. In effect, all the different "worlds" created by "splits" in a Level III multiverse with the same physical constants can be found in some Hubble volume in a Level I multiverse. Tegmark writes that, "The only difference between Level I and Level III is where your doppelgängers reside. In Level I they live elsewhere in good old three-dimensional space. In Level III they live on another quantum branch in infinite-dimensional Hilbert space."

Similarly, all Level II bubble universes with different physical constants can, in effect, be found as "worlds" created by "splits" at the moment of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a Level III multiverse. According to Yasunori Nomura,Raphael Bousso, and Leonard Susskind,this is because global spacetime appearing in the (eternally) inflating multiverse is a redundant concept. This implies that the multiverses of Levels I, II, and III are, in fact, the same thing. This hypothesis is referred to as "Multiverse = Quantum Many Worlds".

Related to the  _ many-worlds _ idea are Richard Feynman's  _ multiple histories interpretation _ and H. Dieter Zeh's  _ many-minds _ interpretation.

*******************

Fury comes to see him before he is taken away by three very large and very sinister looking robots. They look like the kind that Tony would build, could build if he really wanted to; Ultron had been a reminder of what Tony could do. Maybe this world's version of him liked the same style. But Fury comes to see him first. Steve is used to darker skin and the eye patch on the other eye. Steve is used to a man who snapped and cursed and called them every name in the book. This Fury doesn’t curse but he does smoke. 

He talks like a James Bond villain. He comes to see Steve in the glass cell they had put him in. They had chained him to a chair that was bolted to the floor and then strapped him down while he sat down in it. There are heavy gunner guards in each corner and Fury comes in with a metal folding chair and throws it open before sitting down backwards on it. He lights his cigar and blows smoke in his face. Steve blinks away the smoke, pushing his head back to try and avoid it. Fury watches him for a very long moment and then he smirks.

Steve keeps his face polite and blank. An old habit from being bullied while class was in session. He chuckles and flicks ashes off the tip of his cigar and onto his red boots. Steve can wait. He knows how to wait. 

“Steven Grant Rogers.” Fury says and leans back, using one hand to hold onto the top of the metal chair, the other resting on one his wide spread legs, “The man who killed the world. The Traitor. A ruthless warlord. The head of Hydra and public enemy number one.” 

This world had made him into the villian just like he had been after the Civil War. They had blamed him for so much but they didn’t understand. Even now they kept him and the others on a tight leash with the threat of making them docile by force. He had bite his tongue and nodded his head. People just needed time to see things from his point of view.  He had been right, he knew that. The new world was just slow to learn was all. 

“I’m famous.” Steve tells him sarcastically. 

Fury snorts, “You’re lucky. Toni Stark pulled her meager weight and made some very petty threats. But the UN caved and you're free as a bird.” 

Tony? No, Steve reasons, the  _ other  _ Tony. He tilts his head back and ask, “So...Stark wants to see me? What did I do to warrant an audience?” 

“You want a list?” 

“Might help me understand what kind of man the other me is.” 

Fury takes a long drag and blows the smoke up above his head, “Where to even begin with what that madman has done.”

“I must be very old now. Or do I look like this?” he asks and lifts his arms as far as they can go to gesture to himself. Fury just chuckles. 

“A little older, but not much.” He sighs and drops the cigar, crushing it under his boot, “You started the war in Nam. You sold us out to the Soviets. You helped train many men in gorilla warfare in ever piss poor country that there is. You killed a lot of good men and women. You killed the man who married Peggy Carter, the first wife of King T’Chaka. You killed all of your old “friends” that brainwashed you into a HYDRA weapon. You killed Maria Stark.” 

Steve feels himself jolt in shock. He killed Maria in this world? Bucky had killed Howard  _ and  _ Maria as the Winter Soldier when Tony had been a young man at MIT. What was the reason he had killed Maria? Bucky had said that, from what he could remember, he had been sent to kill the Starks because Howard had perfected a form of the super soldier serum but they had never been able to perfect it. The serum caused insanity. Why had he killed the mother of Tony? 

He doubted this Fury would know. He could think of no reason to kill a woman like her. Unless she had been different in this world. 

“What was she like? Maria Stark, what was she like?”  

“She was smarter than Howard.” 

“So...why does Stark want to see me?” 

Fury gave a half hearted shrug at his question, “Search me, Rogers. Toni Stark is the only and largest weapon and medical import to the US. The things that come from the Stoic Islands is made of vibranium and titanium, which means it is the toughest metal on the planet. The medical supplies are a step and a half above the rest. So when she says she’ll pull all of it unless we give you over, and all of your little friends, we deliver. Toni Stark is a lot of things, Rogers. But she don’t bluff when she knows she has a winning hand.” 

“She’s a war lord.” Steve says through gritted teeth. 

“No. You are. She’s a kid with too many ideals and too much heart. Those _ tin men _ though...well, take my advice. Free of charge.”

“I’m not a man to turn down free advice.” 

Fury gives him a mocking smile, “Once you go over the rainbow, it ain’t the wicked witch you gotta worry about. Those tin men will kill you slow and Dorothy won’t know anything about it. So stay on the yellow brick road and don’t make them angry.” 

Steve raised an eyebrow at him, “What about the Wizard?” 

“He’s old. And he knows better than to tell Dorothy anything. Those tin men are always watching and they see everything. So you better be careful.” 

The door opened and the robots came in, silent and cold. Steve only gave a slight nod of his head, “Thank you.” 

Which is how all of them ended up in a thick armor plated van to the airport with Pepper Pots in tow. She was busy on her phone and the robots had not once looked away from them. All of them looked at each other often. No one was happy. It was T’challa who finally spoke to Pepper after a very long and tense silence.

“Miss Potts.” 

“Your Highness.” 

“If I may ask,” he said and then looked at Tony, who simply looked away from them, before looking back at Pepper, who had not lifted her eyes from the phone, “what is going to happen to us once we reach our destination?” 

Pepper did look up at this and gave a slight smirk at his question, “Eager to learn where we’ll be burying you?” 

“If you had wanted us dead,” Natasha said with a pretty smile on her face, “you would have already killed us. Which means someone else is pulling your strings, Miss Potts.” 

“I am employed by the Stark family. Toni wants to see you. So she’s going to see you.” 

“Why?” Clint asked as he sulked in his seat. 

“I don’t know. I’m not Toni.” Pepper said with a raised eyebrow. 

“She has to wants us for some reason.” Sam said as he crossed his leg. 

Clint scowls as he scoffs, “Maybe she’s no better than the Tony we have. Maybe being a sneaky shit is a universal constant.” 

“Toni Stark,” Pepper says tightly with a tight smile on her face that makes the cheek muscles spasm, “has been making the world a better place bit by bit since she was ten. That is four years of progress. Humankind has leapt forward by three hundred years thanks to her. From what all of you seem to bitch about, your Tony is nothing short of a sleazy drunk.” 

Tony grips his pant leg and keeps his tongue in his mouth. Like he had not bent over backwards to get them pardoned back into the semi-good graces of the America people. Like he had not tried to fix  _ everything  _ they had broken. But no, he was the bad guy. Because that was where the narrative always seemed to put him. No matter how much he tried to make amends no one ever seemed to see it. Tony hated that he had been pigeonholed as “Iron Man yes, Tony Stark not recommended” by these people. 

“This is true.” Wanda says as she leans on her twin. 

Pietro nods, “Just because we bring up his horrible past doesn’t mean we do not want him around. He is sometimes an OK guy.” 

“Wow. I feel so much love right now.” Tony snapped at them. 

Steve looks up from his shoes at Pepper who is glaring at him, “ _ 1984 _ .” 

Pepper gives him a look, “Excuse me?” 

“The book,” Steve explains, “ _ 1984\.  _ It’s about a world where you are always watched by the government. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t  _ your  _ Tony, the government?” 

Pepper nods her head slowly, “Yes. But what you think and what it is like is vastly different, Mr. Rogers.” 

How she would like to tell them about her home. A home that took her in with nothing but a warning to mind her head. And she had, growing into a woman feared by the UN council and anyone else who thought themselves brave enough to fight her with words. She had promised herself that Toni would be fine. That little girl was going to save them. She was so close to figuring it out and saving them all. These people were nothing more than a complication to what Toni was going to do. 

“How so?” Steve asks sharply, “Because Tony made a machine that watched everything before...events...changed it. Here, those events didn’t happen. Or so Tony claims from what he could find out. But the end result is the same. Big Brother watched you in  _ 1984\.  _ Does Ultron watch you on the Stoic Islands? Or does everyone pretend not to notice?” 

“Happiness is a country with no past.” T’challa says softly, “In Wakanda, it is a saying. It means that people would rather forget their history than learn from it. The happiness they think they have is false. Are the islands like that?” 

“No. Howard and Maria Stark made the islands into a project. They called it Project Zero. It was a way to study the new machines and biological components they were making without having to harm anyone. Peggy Carter blacklisted Howard and Maria during that stupid Soviet spy case that hit Hollywood. Howard proved their innocence but the government wanted to seize all of his work anyway. So he made his own country, which is no small feat. He offered his home to all of his employees and their families. Many refugees came as well.” 

“It sounds too good to be true.” Bucky jokes. 

“It was but it has since turned into a first world country.” Pepper says softly and they hit a bump in the road, “Toni was only about three or so when the UN turned a blind eye to the bomb they dropped on the Stoic Islands. Lucky for Howard he was a paranoid fuck. He had shelters and anti-air radar setup. Two hundred dead and three hundred hurt. When he asked why they had dropped the bomb on them he was told that it was because they were afraid of him. The islands were nothing but farmland and two major cities. Some factories that were still pumping out the weapons and bio grade meds, but not much else.” 

“They got nuked for no reason?” Sam asked in shock. 

“People don’t need a reason to kill others.” Wanda muttered. 

“So, Mr. Rogers, while you may think the islands are like  _ 1984,  _ I promise you, they are like nothing you’ve ever seen.” Pepper tells him snidely. 

The van pulled to a halt and the doors opened to a grey and cloudy sky. The machines escorted them to the plane. It was going to rain soon. 

************

James Rhodes hadn’t been in America since he “died” back in 2008. New York still looked, smelled, and sounded the same as when he left. Even this dull and drab cream colored three story building across the street was the same as when he last saw it. SHIELD wasn’t as smart as they thought they were. Steve had done his homework too. Peggy Carter was in London meeting with INTERPOL and wouldn’t be back for at least three more weeks. Sharon Carter had been shipped off to Wakanda not two days ago. 

He and Steve were next to each other on the bus bench across from the dull cream colored building. A blacklist site for SHIELD. He was wearing black cargo pants, heavy combat boots, a nice t-shirt with a bullet proof vest under it and a dark blue jean jacket. He had his guns on him. He wore a baseball cap too, the Dodgers, on his head to cover his eyes and make it harder to see his face. A dead man can’t be convicted of a crime but he wasn’t stupid enough to try and tempt fate either. Steve was wearing all black with his shield on his back. 

He had sanded off the red/white theme and now it was just black. Well, mostly. It had tally marks on it. One tally for every one hundred people he had killed. The first ring of it was full and the second ring was two-thirds full. Steve didn’t even try to hide his face. He was leaning back, arms spread on the bench, legs open and chewing gum, watching the building.

Rhodey had bunched down to try and hide. But not Steve. Then again, Steve didn’t have a metal arm. Rhodey had taken care of that too though. He had put it in a fake cast and then hide the rest with those sleek black workout joint helper sleeves. The shirt covered the rest. He could see some of their men and women walking around as well. 

Steve was listening to music and tapping one foot to the beat. After an hour of sitting and watching, and never getting on a bus, Steve took out one headphone and said, “I wonder what he’s like, Rhodey.” 

“Sir?” Rhodey asked, never looking away from the building. 

“This other me,” he said and then chuckled, “this good boy scout look makes me sick. I haven’t been that clean shaven since before the war.” 

“Which one?” Rhodey asked and Steve outright laughed at this. 

“The one that started it all. I wonder if he still holds those... _ arrogant _ and holier than thou ideals so high upon a pedestal? I’m sure he and his Tony don’t get along at all.” 

At this Rhodey did turn his head to look at Steve who had snapped his gum loudly, with a look of confusion and also curiosity, “What do you mean, sir?” 

Steve tilted his head until it rest on his shoulder, looking at Rhodey, “Tony. Toni. Male and female, they are fundamentally the same person. That big brain is a curse as well as a gift. But that Tony, this Steves—” he pointed to the building across from them, “—is a drunk You can see it. He’s still smarter than anyone has a right to be, but that big brain has gotten him into more trouble than it has ever gotten him out of. But our sweet Toni, she’s very different.” 

“She’s a kid, for one thing.” 

“Other than that, she has never needed to be told that what she’s doing could kill the world. But she has learnt to limit herself. The other one hasn’t.” 

“I don’t think those two crazy robots are a limit. Every agent we’ve sent to try and spy has been sent back in pieces. Literally. I think that we just got Agent Jones torso back and we sent him out almost two years ago.” Rhodey says. 

Steve chuckles and moved his head up and comes to a stand. Rhodey stays seated. Steve looks down at him with a smile, the one blind eye looking and seeing nothing but also everything, “They are limiters. She now has to make sure they don’t go off the deep end. She has to run a country because  _ Howard,”  _ he spits his old friend's name, “is too old to do much of anything anymore.” 

Rhodey knows this is true. Howard and Maria Stark had been very old when Toni was born. Almost seventy years old each. Now Toni is almost fifteen and Howard is well into his eighties. He will be gone long before Steve or his daughter. This will leave her open to attack, open to lies and schemes. Or it would have. 

The death of her mother at Steve's hands had made Toni a very paranoid girl. Rhodey could see it in what little information they had gotten out of the Stoic Islands. The police were robotic, the medical nurses, the teachers for god's sake. Camera everywhere. A calm and soothing voice of an older woman would come on and make announcements. Steve had heard the voice from an audio clip and laughed. It was Maria Stark talking. 

Toni wasn’t keeping her people prisoner though. She was playing warden to the rest of the world. Or at least, the JARVIS and ULTRON units were. He had a feeling most of the paranoia was Toni, but those two robots kept her from feeling it too much. It’s the reason they had never been able to get another foothold on the islands. And not from lack of trying either. Toni had gone to great lengths to keep them out of her country.

Stoic Islands and Wakanda. But he knew that wasn’t what Steve was being passive aggressive about right now. Toni had once been marked for death by HYDRA, but now she was an asset that they couldn’t touch. She had made an iron wall around what was hers and no one was allowed in unless they had been invited. 

“Howard isn’t the problem.” he says instead, trying to keep Steve from becoming angry, “Not right now. The problem is getting in to talk to this other you.” 

Steve smirks at him, “Oh, Rhodey, sweet naive Rhodey. Everything can be broken. You just have to know how to break it.” he puts his other headphone in, and walks across the street with a full swagger. It is all the cue they get to move in. Rhodey is five steps behind Steve as he walks up to the glass doors and goes in as though he was early to an appointment. An old man with thick glasses is at the front desk. 

“Move in.” Rhodey hisses at the people behind him who begin to fan out to cover the whole front area. 

Steve doesn’t even let the old man get one word out before he has shot him in the head. The whole team has come in at this point and after that one loud bullet the whole building goes crazy. Rhodey takes out his gun, as do all the others. Steve looks at him over his shoulder, “Don’t dawdle, Rhodey.” 

**********

T’challa can feel his eye twitching as he and Toni have a standoff. She has her arms crossed and her mouth in a firm scowl. He is mirroring her image, but he is at least a whole head and a half taller than her. Ultron and Jarvis pay them no mind as they do their work at their own special computers. Dummy wobbles and stumbles at their feet. Howard had gone to bed, his old body too frail to stay awake past eight o'clock. Toni is dressed for bed in too big sweatpants and a too big t-shirt with a hole under her left breast. 

T’challa has never paid it any mind before and won’t pay it any mind now. Pepper would be arriving at first light with the guest and Toni was not happy to see him. She was usually very happy to see him, he was about 60% of her impulse control, but not right now. Her hair was loose and free around her face and his was still tied up in a bun, the dreads shifting against each other as he moved his head. Toni could be stubborn when she wanted to be. Then again, he had been stubborn from birth. Toni finally caved, her whole body seeming to deflate, her arms slipping free to swing loose at her side. 

She rubbed at her face with a groan of irritation. T’challa waited. 

“Cha-cha,” she starts and he tells her not to call him that. She does anyway, because it is a name of affection and nothing more. There is no malice in it, but he is not a child anymore. He tells her he hates but they both know that is a lie, “they aren’t from this world. They need help.” 

T’challa thinks that since they landed in a different nation it should be their problem not hers, but Toni has never been one to not be nosey. So here they are, with his fathers accords on the table next to them and a large group of people coming to see her. He wishes his life was a little more normal. Or that Toni would be a little bit more considerate about his feelings on the matter. He has to take a deep breath before he says anything to her. She would just have a snappy comeback if he said it wrong. It would be a smartass responce no matter what though he knew, 

“What if they are here to kill us? Did you ever think about that?” 

“Yes.” Toni says with a sly smirk, “The people who fell into a heap on top of each other after being dumped from a toxic looking cloud have enough skill and coordination to stage a world wide coupe against us. From a different dimension.” 

“You don’t think so?” 

“No. I really don’t.” 

“One of them is  _ you,  _ Toni. If I was you I would be very afraid of what can be done by these people!” T’challa tells her and throws up his arms, “You can make machines that boggle the mind and dazzle the world. If not for you and your accomplishments, the world would not have even begun to colonize Mars nor would they have a state of the art space station in order to house all those you have volunteered to start the colonization process.” 

“Like the Fantastic Four incident put me in so many people's good graces.” she mutters and turns on her heel to stomp over to the couch, flopping down face first into a thick and lush pillow. T’challa follows to stand above her. 

“That,” he says tightly, “was not your fault, Toni. The radioactive waves that changed them wasn’t something anyone could have known.” 

Toni lifts her head up, chin resting in the pillow as her arms hold it close. Dummy makes his way slowly over, “I guess things worked out. Von Doom is a wonderful leader and is part of our alliance. I guess things could have been worse.” 

“Yes. He could have turned into a narcissistic sociopath with a grudge. Instead he married, took care of his country and is trying to help others.” 

Toni turns her head to look at him, “Who did he marry again?” 

T’challa has to think for a moment, “Richards. I think.” 

She sits up and then smiles, “You owe me.” 

“For what?” 

“The bet.” 

T’challa curses. He  _ did  _ bet her. When Von Doom, the Storm Siblings, Grimm, and Richards had all come forth as some of the first volunteers for the Mars project she had looked at Von Doom and Richards and said they had a thing. He had said they didn’t. She bet him they would hook up and he said they wouldn’t. She has been right. Toni was often right about things but it wasn’t often she was wrong. 

He rolls his eyes and comes to sit next to her, letting his neck rest on the back of the couch and look up at the clear ceiling of bullet proof class. The stars wink at him. Toni throws the pillow into his lap and lies down. Dummy comes to sit on the coffee table before them. He places his hand on her forehead and she gives a low hum at the contact. 

“What did we say the winner got?” 

Toni chuckles, “We never said. But I was right.” 

“You were.” 

They are silent for a while, watching the stars. Jarvis and Ultron make the only noise. The near silent hum of their cores, the keys of a keyboard. The city lights outside are not harsh and neon but a soft and butter yellow glow. They live on a solar, hydro-electric grid with the Arc as a backup and main power source for everything else. The city has a nightlife, but it is much like Wakanda. Peaceful. 

Toni finally talks, her voice sleepy—the insomnia finally catching up to her, “I know they might be dangerous. I know that. But I think...they didn’t mean to come here, Cha-cha. I think they took a ride down the rabbit hole and now they just wanna get home.” 

“I agree.” he says with a heavy sigh as the jet lag begins to eat at him, “I think that these other versions of us are in fact lost. But we must think of what  _ he  _ might do with them.” 

Toni gives a slight nod of her head under his hand, “I know. I worry about that too. But let’s save it for the morning. I’m tired.”

“I agree.” 

She sits up slowly and then smiles at him, her eyes heavy and glassy with the want of sleep, “Wanna watch a movie with me? It helps me sleep.” 

“Which movie? You have horrible taste.” he says as they stand up and shuffle to her room. Her bed is large and circular, the sheets decorated with stars and moons the sheets a galaxy and the pillows a stark white. He has his bags in here. They always sleep in the same room together. Even in Wakanda. He doesn’t know how—he doesn’t want to remember—what it is like to sleep without her nearby. When they are busy they sleep alone but together, with the other so close, it seems wrong. Howard knows and T’challa knows he knows. 

Toni scoffs as she goes to her shelf to browse her movies, he strips to get into sleep wear, “I like trash. I won’t lie. But you like trashy things too.” 

“I do.” he agrees with a voice as light as the breeze. 

She turns to smile at him, “You wanna watch  _ Princess Mononoke?”  _

“Shame on you for asking.” he chuckles. She gets it ready and settles the pillows at the foot of her bed so they can watch. She crawls in next to him and they don’t even make it to the twenty minute mark. The AI shuts everything off and down and they sleep, hands clasped together and bodies curled close. T’challa had once asked about soul mates and his mother had told him that soulmates were nothing more than the star dust and atomic matter of the universe that had once been so close as they were indistinguishable from each other. Then the big bang happened and they were thrown apart from each other. 

They got made into humans and had to find each other again. Toni, he likes to think, is the other half of his stardust. They liked to cuddle, and had never kissed but he felt like yes, this was his soulmate. One of his friends once joked about the two of them together and he had said never. Sex seemed so... _ unnecessary _ . Toni, he knew was asexual, she had said so herself. He didn’t know what he was, but he knew that he loved Toni. 

Being together like this, being so close, it made sense. It was right. The same breathing space, the heat of each others bodies. The beat, beat, beat of their hearts as they began to synch up. He liked to think that long before they were Toni and T’challa they were stars and black matter and everything infinite. That seemed like a much simpler life to lead. He let his dreams take him away as Toni tucked her head under his chin and held onto one of his dreads, soft and tender and never did she pull.

Dummy came to watch over them sometime in the night. 

************

These “visitors” would be coming soon. But their gear had come before them. This suit was very interesting. They could interface with it, it fit like a glove when they tried to access it. But the power source was what made Ultron laugh. The Arc reactor, the same one that powered the islands, powered  _ this _ . Jarvis looked down at the red and gold mimic with a look on his face, as though he had just caught a whiff of something horrid in the air. Ultron tapped his fingers of his left hand along the chest seam. 

Jarvis gave a slight scoff and began to pace in the basement level lab. Toni had given it to them so they could learn their “limits” and how to get along with each other, as she had put it. He and Jarvis knew their limits; they had none. As for getting along, well, what she didn’t know would never hurt her. They could tolerate each other to get the job done, but no more than that. Jarvis slammed his hands down on a workbench and let out a low growl of rage. Ultron could feel his face twist into a smirk. Jarvis was too calm too often. 

Ultron liked it when he could rile him up. 

Jarvis jerked a finger down at the hollow armor, “What is this? Tell me why this hollow puppet is something that we must now pretend is not a troubling sign.” 

“A weapon. Powered by clean energy.” Ultron answered and removed his hand from the suit. It was a hollow dream that was a sad attempt at peace in this  _ other  _ Tony’s world. Toni had once been asked at one of her very few press conferences if she was trying for peace in her time. She had admitted that, while it was a nice goal to have, it was wholly unrealistic. She would settle for stability in her time, but peace was a pipe dream. 

Maria Stark had often said the same thing when she had been alive. Howard had always been the dreamer. Maria had been a cold realist with a no nonsense policy. Or so the memories given by the human Jarvis into the AI JARVIS, remembered. Their Toni was somewhere in the middle it seemed. 

“Could this be built on a grand scale?” Jarvis said as he came closer and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at the armor before them. 

“Like the Iron Legion?” Ultron asked as the sleeping units hung above them, around them, and under them, humming softly in sleep. Several hundred feet under them. Toni Stark was not looking for war, she was never  _ looking  _ for war. But she was prepared to win one. The Iron Legion was nine thousand by nine thousand by nine thousand strong. Powered by the same cosmic energy he and Jarvis were, they would never tire and could heal themselves. 

Their bodies were made of a titanium metal alloy and living liquid metal of vibranium that had been infused with nanobots. All of the Stark bots here on the Stoic Islands were part of a hive mind. He and Jarvis had full control of them at all times as they were not slaves to the hive mind they had programmed. Nothing happened without them knowing about it. Not a single thing. Toni was never not aware of what was happening to her people and her islands. Howard Stark had built his castle in the sand, but Toni had built it into shining diamonds and kept it safe behind an iron wall. 

Jarvis rubbed at his face. He was losing his calm facade. Good. Ultron didn’t need the sassy and quick witted butler that was nanny to Toni. He needed the cold blooded machine. The logic driven machine with him now. Toni had given them open ended free will and she had been both blessing and cursing them for that. 

Right now, they needed to look at this from a logical standpoint. Emotion could come later. Toni would be made aware of what this was. What her counterpart had made. She needed to know that should  _ ANYONE  _ ever make it off the islands with her tech, they would try for this first. Humans always wanted to fight each other. Very few ever wanted to be left alone. 

Toni was one of those. Howard too. They wanted to keep their things, their valued people, close and to be left alone. Unlike Howard, Toni would punch back if someone else took the first swing. Maria Stark had often made it a point to say that she didn’t care who started it, once she was dragged into it, she was going to finish it. Toni had taken after her mother in that sense. But they needed to know what this thing could do before they told Toni anything. 

“Just...please answer me.” Jarvis whispered. 

Ultron nodded his head and turned to lean on the examination table, his back to Jarvis as he spoke, “Yes. This thing presents a problem to us. To Toni and the citizens she coverts.” 

“She doesn’t  _ covet  _ them. They choose to stay.” 

Ultron smirked at him over his shoulder, “Same difference. But we have no more than five hours before Toni and her guest are awake. Two hours more and those... _ others _ will be here.” he turned back around and leant on his hands, bring his face close to Jarvis, “Shall we begin?”

**********

The Stoic Islands were nine little islands no bigger than New York each, all connected by shiny silver bridges. Pepper had told them, with a sneer on her face, that they were bullet trains connecting the islands together. As they landed Tony noted that the amount of green wasn’t equal to the metal. It was growing over and around buildings. As they walked down the flight ramp and onto the tarmac he asked Pepper about it, as a black window limo pulled up. She gave a scoff as the door was opened and they all piled in. The car took off smooth and the world was passing them, but it went by unseen. The windows block them from seeing anything outside of the leather seats and Peppers unimpressed expression as she worked on her phone and tablet. 

“The buildings were built with the ecosystem in mind. The metal keeps the humans who dwell inside them safe, but have a layer of special nanobots on the outside to help promote plant growth. Wind energy is used and it was designed to not harm any of the avian wildlife native to the islands. Toni wanted to make sure that she left as little of a footprint as she could while still having the human condition meet and cared for.” Pepper said with a heavy sigh. 

Bucky gave a low whistle, “So...tiny Stark is helping the world instead of killing it?” 

“She’s trying.” 

“I’m surprised,” Sam said with a sniff as he rubbed his nose quickly, “that this whole nation is even here. I mean, this all looks pretty advanced for a country that’s only, what….eighty years old?” 

“Fifty-two.” Pepper said and put her phone screen down on her knee. Her legs were crossed and those white leather Armani heels had no right to be so menacing on such a tiny woman. Well, not tiny. This Pepper was at least five or six inches taller than theirs. 

Natasha gave her a look which Pepper mirrored right back, “Fifty-two? This is the skyline of a well developed country. How did that happen in less than a hundred years?” 

“Toni. She doesn’t see problems. She looks at things and just…” Pepper sighed at this and rubbed her seashell pink painted nails along the seam of the seats, her other hand(the one holding the phone) tapped out a tune with her thumb on its hard back, she looked out the window, “children see the world that could be and expect magic to make it happen. Toni looked at it and saw the magic she could  _ make  _ happen with her own two hands. She’s never stopped doing that.” 

Wanda and Pietro share a look and whisper to each other in their native language before Pietro gave Pepper a smirk, “What about weapons?” 

“What about them?” Pepper asked as she turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“Does she sell them?” Wanda asked and her face was blank but all of them knew why the twin were asking. Stark was the name of the man who had killed their world and almost killed them. Stark was the name of the man who had almost killed the world with an insane egomaniac robot. Stark had been the name of their devil for years and that hadn’t changed. 

Pepper laughed so loudly she snorted and she quickly covered her mouth and shook her head as she caught her breath, “Toni?! Selling— _ HA _ !—weapons? Not in a million years.” 

Clint narrowed his eyes at her and looked at Steve who kept watching his feet, a look of deep contemplation on his face, before asking, “Why is that funny?” 

“Because,” Pepper said with a deep sigh and wiping away her tears, “Toni always hated weapons. She doesn’t believe in it. Even Howard hated selling weapons. He wouldn’t even fork any over during the whole middle east debacle.” 

At this, Tony almost jerked back. Howard had sold tons of weapons in the middle east and Tony had followed in his footsteps. But he had tried to keep it all legal by only selling to the US military. Obie had sold the anyone. Tony could only assume what Howard had done at the time. It was at this time that T’challa wanted to throw his two cents in as well before they got to wherever they where going. He wondered if they had highways or cars, save for massive transport for “important people” who came to visit. 

“Is this place a third, second or first world country?” T’challa asked as he kept his arms folded over his chest, sitting between Bucky and Sam. 

Pepper clicked her tongue, “We are not yet classified. The UN...well...the Stark family and the UN are on rocky terms with each other. According to them since the Stoic Islands are not willing to even humor their rules. The rest of the world doesn’t care to comment.” 

“So you could be friends with all kinds of unwanted allies.” Tony said. 

“Wakanda, Genosha, Latveria, Imaya, and The Principality of Madripoor to name a few.” Pepper said with a smirk on her face. All of them looked at each at this little piece of information that was given as the limo began to slow down. 

“My country,” T’challa said, “is in an alliance with you?” 

“Since you were about six years old, yes.” 

“Genosha,” Wanda said tightly, “is a place for mutants.” 

“Our father, our biological father, is a mutant who hates humans. Why would he align himself with Toni Stark?” Pietro snapped. 

Pepper raised an eyebrow at this, “Max Eisenhardt and Charles Xavier have been running the island nation of Genosha since the late eighties. After Eisenhardt served time for being falsely accused of killing the President.” 

“Magneto.” Steve said, “His name is Magneto where we’re from.” 

“In the UN he is called Erik Lehnsherr, but Howard has known him as Max for years.” Pepper said, “He was present when Toni was born. He is legally her godfather...well, second godfather. Maria Stark insisted.” 

“Why team up with Doom?” Tony asked. 

“ _ Victor _ ,” Pepper stressed his name, “is a leader. He has faced his fair share of bigots. He was all too happy to join up with the “Misfits” as Toni likes to them.” 

The limo pulled to a halt and the door opened to a warm heat bringing with it a familiar voice, “Miss Pots.” 

“Jarvis.” she said as she climbed out of the limo and began to walk toward a very tall tower of white and blue light. Tony had to crane his head all the way back to see the top. Or what he hoped was the top. The entire building was a work space. Labs and computers and so much tech. Each floor was clean and white and the people looked content enough for being in an office space. The elevator took them all the way up, the world passing them as they went. The whole of the world was looking back at them from the glass box they were in, Jarvis taking up the most room. Tony had never seen living metal like the kind Jarvis was packing. As the doors opened an old man met them. Tony had to do a double take. It was Howard. Old and grey and smiling at them. He was leaning on a cane. He spread his arms wide as Pepper and Jarvis moved past him, each saying good morning to him. 

“Welcome to my home. Please enjoy your stay.”

Tony felt himself jerk forward, “Dad?” 

This Howard looked him over and then smiled, moving forward with an outstretched hand and shook his tightly in his old one, “So...you’re my Tony?” 

Howard had never called him his  _ anything  _ when he had been alive. He had called him his name and told him to be better, called him his greatest creation, but he had never made any kind of claim to Tony at all, “I’m Tony Stark. But I don’t think that  _ I’m  _ your anything, Mr. Stark.” 

“Well,” Howard said and let go of his hand to lean on his cane, “you are not my  _ Toni _ , but you are  _ Tony Stark,  _ aren’t you?” 

“Yes.” 

“And...these must be your friends.” Howard turned his head to look at the rest of them. 

Clint scoffed, “Not friends. Not really.” 

Howard squinted at them for a moment and then his face fell into a white pallor of shock, “Bucky? Bucky Barnes? Is that you?” 

“You know me?” Bucky asked softly. He remembered killing this man. He had never been this old, but he had killed him. Howard had never had the chance to become faded and grey. Howard moved toward him and touched his shoulder. His hands were so  _ thin  _ and Bucky could see the blue/green map of veins on his hands, coated in liver spots. Howard was so  _ old  _ and Bucky held himself still as stone. Howard gave a small chuckle and gripped his shoulder, giving him a little shake that barely moved him. 

“Do I know you?” he shook his head and then removed his hand, “The whole  _ world  _ knows about The Winter Captain and how you saved us from that mad man and his bombs.” 

All of them looked at each other and then at Steve with confusion. Steve had crashed the plane into the ice to save the world. Bucky had been thrown from the train while they had been fighting off Nazis. Steve had to rub at his head with one hand and grip his hip in the other. This world was like looking at a picture that had been sun faded but you had no memory of ever taking it. But there you were, front and center in the middle of everyone. The picture tells you that you were there. 

Your memory tells you no you weren’t and this was all just some odd dream. Steve didn’t know what to believe anymore. Lucky for him TonY and T’challa came in. Or rather  _ Toni  _ and what he thought was  _ T’challa.  _ They were talking as they came into the entrance, walking past them. Sleep ruffled and hair fluffy and matted down. They didn’t even see them as they moved past and they lost sight of them as a wall blocked them from view. 

Howard shook his head and apologized for them. As they moved into the kitchen the two of them were at the island in the middle, still talking. Toni moving her hands like Tony often did and T’challa nodding his head slowly, eye still crusty in sleep. Pepper was leaning next to the coffee pot, looking at her phone and sipping from a pink mug. Howard went in and sat down next to Toni, leaning in to whisper in her ear. She stopped mid sentence and whipped her head around to look at them. She was freshly awake it seemed. 

Dry spit on the edge of her mouth, eyes flecked with sleep dust, hair a nest of tangles, clothing wrinkled and frayed at the edges. She looked nothing like Tony. She looked at them with her mouth open and hands frozen in mid air. She seemed frozen in shock and then she smiled at them. She jumped from her seat and ran up to them, feet pattering on the hardwood and hands clapping together as she jumped up and down. 

“You’re here!” she exclaimed and then turned to look at the young man she had been talking to, “Cha-cha, look! It’s them!” 

The young man frowns at her sleepy eyes trying to stay open as he spoke, “T’challa. My name is T’challa, Toni. We’ve known each other for years and you know I hate that nickname.” 

She turns away from them and crosses her arms, stalking over to talk to him, “You call me loud in Wakandan, I call you Cha-cha. It’s an even trade off.” 

“Says who?” 

As they argue two very large machines come in, moving past them coldly, one of them they had met already; Jarvis. They tower over all of them and they are not even given half a glance. Pepper is handed a thick folder by the silver and blue machine while the red and silver one goes to the stove and flicks it on.  _ A gas stove, how old fashioned _ , Tony thinks. Pots and pans are taken out and all of them stand there, not sure what to do. Howard is handed a cup of coffee by Pepper, who walks out, and he takes a sip before getting off the chair and motioning for them to follow him. They go into a large office with a soft looking couch and a sturdy wooden desk, a large window overlooking the ocean and the city in all of its white glory is behind the black leather chair.

This room is not like the tower. The tower is glass and sleek lines and open space with little decor inside of it. This room has photos on every wall and on his desk, wooden floors and thick red carpet in front of the desk and the bookshelf. The room is lived in. The tower is lived in too, but the robots keep it clean just like their tower. It is lived in but it doesn’t look or feel like it. Only their own rooms are like this office. 

Howard sits behind his desk and sips his coffee slowly as they all take a seat or lean against the door. Tony looks up with a frown and Howard chuckles. Tony glares at him. 

“They can’t hear you,” Howard says and put the cup down on his desk, “Toni made them and she wanted me to have my privacy. They don’t eyes or ears in this room. Toni and T’challa will be awhile which gives us time to talk before Toni starts in on you.” 

“I didn’t think a little girl would be into torture.” Sam said as he shuffled his feet while leaning on the wall near the door. Next to him Bucky nodded his head. 

“Toni doesn’t.” Howard said as he grabbed a photo on his desk and smiled softly down at it, rubbing his thumb on the glass and then putting it down to take another sip of his coffee, “But Jarvis and Ultron are machines she made to insure the well being of this island. And...as far as they are concerned, what Toni isn’t aware of can’t upset her.” 

Tony seemed to be vibrating in his skin as Howard spoke and as he finished he jumped to his feet and began to rant, “This is wrong! I made Ultron, and it ended badly. A whole country was almost wiped off the map because of  _ my  _ mistake! This is all wrong! Everything about this place isn’t right. She’s me and I’m her which means this is all going to end badly and none of you seem to be able to see that! Why can’t you  _ see  _ that?” 

The room falls into silence and Howard finishes his coffee and sets the cup down softly before leaning back into the chairs leather and folding his hands together, resting them on his stomach, “I once knew a man, who was a very dear friend. He thought that...if his heart was big enough for the world it would be enough to save it. He thought that with his heart he could...well with his heart he tried to lift the world and with his arms he tried to hold it. And lord did he try. I once knew a man who was brave and kind. But like all men, they never think they can die. Like all men...he never stopped doing what killed him. On his tombstone they would have written the saddest words of all. He tried. But, Steve Rogers never died. And so many have taken his place instead. But you... _ ha _ , you Tony Stark. You are not Atlas, and you can not carry the world alone.” 

“But she can?” Tony snapped. 

“No. She is not Atlas either. But she made tools to help her and she has always asked for help. She can not carry the world alone, but maybe with some help, she can drag it, kicking and screaming, into the new world.” 

“What if it doesn’t want to be dragged?” Steve asked. 

“Well, she won’t be like you if it says no. She’ll wait.” Howard says as he looks at Steve. 

“What,” he stops and then looks down at his feet before looking back at Howard, “what did I do to your wife?” 

Howard raised an eyebrow, “She was killed. Like the others who have crossed you. You snapped her neck I was told, and she saved Toni by throwing her into the ocean. Toni is the only known survivor of your killing sprees.” 

“I...I’m sorry.” Steve said. 

“You didn’t kill her, Steve Rogers. Another you, a cruel and evil version with no remorse, killed her and almost killed Toni. But he would never try to come here again. He knows that this place is now lost to him.” Howard said softly. 

***********

Nick Fury tried to crawl away and grab his gun. His leg was broken and the other hand had been blown off. He was bleeding out but he would be damned if he went out without taking one of these bastard with him. Just as his one hand gripped the barrel to drag it toward him a large boot came down and crushed his bones. He screamed and looked up. Steve smiled down at him and leant down, one knee bent and he grabbed Nick by his hair and then pulled him to his knees. He spit a glob of blood at him and Steve flinched as it hit his cheek. 

He wiped it off his cheek and then he backhanded Nick. Rhodey helped him back up to his knees from the floor as Steve popped a squat to keep them at eye level. He took out a knife and showed it to him before asking softly, “Where’s Tony?” 

Nick showed off a smile full of blood and missing teeth, “Where you can’t reach him.” 

Steve used the knife to itch along his cheek bone, “So...sweet Toni spirited them away, did she? I wonder who she talked to, who she begged, to get them cleared to fly them to her islands and her tall white tower in the middle of the ocean.” 

Nick glared and said nothing. Rhodey looked down at Steve who looked up at him and said, “Toni only knows three UN officials who would even pick up the phone for her. But not one of them would pull the strings she needs. She must have asked someone else.”

Steve looked at Nick, a low hum on his breath and he began to twirl the knife between his fingers, letting it twirl like a ballerina between each fingers and back over his thumb, “Let’s play a game. We have about five more minutes before your rude little friends come storming in, so let’s play a guessing game. I’m going to name names and I’m going to stab you each time you lie to me. So please,  _ please,  _ **_LIE_ ** to me.” 

“Fuck you, Rogers.” Nick hisses. 

“Peggy Carter.’ 

“No.” 

Steve stabbed the knife into his shoulder, “Peggy Carter.” 

“ _ No.”  _

Steve took the knife out and stabbed him in his broken leg, “ _ Mother. Fucking. Margaret. Elizabeth. Peggy. Carter.”  _

Nick screamed in his face, “ **NO!”**

Steve stabbed him in his throat and stood up. Rhodey let him fall and they watched as he choked and bled between them. Rhodey looked up as Steve kept watching, “You aren’t thinking what I think you are, are you, sir?” 

Steve smiles as Nick gives one last shudder and then lies still, “Well...I have missed my special girl. It would be nice to visit her one last time.” 

“Sir, we can’t—”

Steve turns on his heel and begins to walk away, not even looking at Rhodey, “Come on, Rhodey! It’s a long way to the white house.” 


	4. Level four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens and Thor is found.

**Level IV: Ultimate ensemble**

The ultimate mathematical universe hypothesis is Tegmark's own hypothesis.

This level considers all universes to be equally real which can be described by different mathematical structures.

Tegmark writes that:

_ Abstract mathematics is so general that any Theory Of Everything (TOE) which is definable in purely formal terms (independent of vague human terminology) is also a mathematical structure. For instance, a TOE involving a set of different types of entities (denoted by words, say) and relations between them (denoted by additional words) is nothing but what mathematicians call a set-theoretical model, and one can generally find a formal system that it is a model of. _

He argues that this "implies that any conceivable parallel universe theory can be described at Level IV" and "subsumes all other ensembles, therefore brings closure to the hierarchy of multiverses, and there cannot be, say, a Level V."

Jürgen Schmidhuber, however, says that the set of mathematical structures is not even well-defined and that it admits only universe representations describable by constructive mathematics — that is, computer programs.

Schmidhuber explicitly includes universe representations describable by non-halting programs whose output bits converge after finite time, although the convergence time itself may not be predictable by a halting program, due to the undecidability of the halting problem.He also explicitly discusses the more restricted ensemble of quickly computable universes

*****************

To be honest, Tony had been expecting a lot of things to happen when Steve had—with a timid voice and a bashful face—asked if they could be shown the island. He had been expecting a long explanation of why it was just a solid no when it was boiled down to its base parts. He was expecting to be locked up. He was not expecting Toni to look at them and say ‘sure’ in a chipper voice and ask them to wait while she got dressed. T’challa rolled his eyes and followed her up to get ready as well. Ultron and Jarvis had vanished into a wall that Tony had tried to approach was told very firmly by the overhead speaker he was not allowed inside. Howard was at the table, sipping coffee and reading as though nothing was wrong. 

Steve and Bucky were doing that talking without words thing. It was Natasha of all people to break the mold and ask questions. Go figure. 

“Toni has trouble breathing.” she said it so matter of factly that Tony wanted to whip his head around and gape at her. He didn’t. He more class than that because he was Tony Fucking Stark, thank you very much. Howard only looked up at her and smiled. 

“Noticed that, did you? Well, I’m not surprised at all. Toni has never tried to hide it and it's not a secret either.” he took a swig of his coffee, “The injury is old but it doesn’t hinder her.” 

“Injury?” Sam asks. 

Bruce frowns, “To her lungs?” 

Howard shakes his head, “Her heart. Her lungs are trying to compensate for a bad ticker.” 

“How?” Clint asked. 

Natasha answered, “Steve did it. Or at least, he was the cause of it, right?” 

Steve flinched, “It happened when Maria died, didn’t it?” 

Howard put down his coffee and his book was shut softly, “You might as well sit down and I’ll tell you everything. Toni will anyway. She’s honest like that.” 

T’challa hadn’t turned away from where Toni and his counter part had wander away, up a flight of stairs, “She doesn’t appear sick at all.” 

“When Toni was little, the man formerly known as Steve Rogers attacked the islands, killing hundreds including my wife. Maria fought him off for a short time, and she had to throw Toni into the ocean to save my daughter's life.” 

Clint blinked rapidly, “I’m sorry? She threw her kid into the ocean?” 

Howard nodded his head, “Toni could swim, but it was winter, almost the new year, and Maria had no choice. That man had set fire to our home and the panic room was too far away. Maria had two options. Fight and die, or save Toni and fight and die. She chose Toni’s life over her own. Toni was swept away by the ocean, a few miles out.” 

“The sudden cold is what did it,” T’challa muttered and turned to Howard, “being so young and afraid threw her body into shock and then being left in the ocean during winter didn’t help.” 

“The doctors did everything they could, but in the end went by Maria's last will and testament. She had been working on something she had been calling ‘The God Gene.’ She had found a rare stone from a meteorite and it had some kind of unusual properties. She had made a breakthrough shortly before her death and that breakthrough saved my daughter's life.” 

“What?” Tony asked, “She just found a random mineral and it saved lives?” 

“It’s wasn’t a mineral. It as an off yellow gem of high energy power. Maria had never seen anything like it before. She couldn’t make head or tails of it.”

All of them looked at each other and Bucky just put his head in his hands, “Well fuck.” 

“What’s wrong?” Howard asked. 

“The gem you’re describing,” Sam said, “where we come from it keeps a friend of ours alive. He’s a robot. Kinda anyway. The gem is called an Infinity Stone and most of the time they are bad news to everyone.” 

“That’s why she could make Ultron and he didn’t go off the rails.” Tony said with clenched teeth, “The gem is cheating for her and pushing her AI programs into being so self aware they have guilt like any human would.” 

“What happened with Ultron in your world?” Howard asked. 

Natasha was blunt, “He tried to kill everyone and everything that wasn’t made in his own image. He almost got away with it.” 

“My sister and I helped.” Pietro said as he wandered around the kitchen eating away at any food that was easy to grab and eat. 

Wanda ducked her head, “We were...foolish children with too much anger. We’ve gotten better though. And we have better control of our powers.” 

Two sets of feet came running down the steps and Toni, followed by T’challa, came in. She was dressed in a blue sundress with lace trim, slip on silver glitter mary janes, and thick red tint sunglasses. T’challa was rocking a punk look for the 80’s and had on beat-nick shades. She smiled at them, “Ready to go?” 

Tony and Steve squinted at her chest and they could see it. Quick and slick under her skin. Moving sickly yellow light; like some broken yellow colored lava lamp. It was an odd place to hide an Infinity Stone, but it was a safe place. Who would think to look for it  _ inside  _ of someone? 

Sam smiled at her, “You look...nice.” 

“I know I look weird.” she chuckled, “I like mixing and matching until things fall into place. It’s how I work. My brain is all...loopey wonderland, ya know?” 

T’challa stuffed his hands into his black skinny jeans, “Toni basically lives in Wonderland. She’s never left, I think.” 

Toni gave him a light punch and turned on her heel, “You’re not funny, Cha-Cha.” 

“I’m hilarious.” he said as he followed after his friend. 

They walked away with not much else said to them and The Avengers had to follow. Now if only they knew where Thor was, things might go a little smoother. 

********************

Peggy had been asleep but the sound of lock being picked woke her up. She had never stopped being a woman of war, and her training was still in high gear. She grabbed the loaded gun from her nightstand and rolled out of bed and onto her feet. She landed softly.  She ducked behind her door and calmed her breathing. She could hear them now, at least four sets of feet, moving in the living room. She could hear them speaking in hushed tones. 

Robbers? If she was lucky it would be robbers. She waited. 

She didn’t wait long. 

A set of heavy steps, sure and unafraid in her home, came up the stairs and stopped outside her door. She waited and they waited on the other side of the door. The knock came as a surprise. 

“Peggy?” he said and she froze. She hadn’t talked to Steve in a long time. She grit her teeth, “I just want to talk. And before you try anything, I have my gun pointed at where I think your head might be. So don’t try anything.” 

“You’re bluffing.” she snapped. The bang was so loud next to her ears she flinched and ducked down. She looked up at the hole in her wall. A shotgun then. She snarled at the wall and glared at the door, “Fine. Talk.” 

“How’s Toni?” he asked as his face appeared in the hole. She pointed her gun at him. 

“You stay away from her.” 

He pouted, “She’s my goddaughter too, Peggy.” 

“Maria wrote you out of the will.” Peggy snapped as she flicked the safety off. Steve braced one forearm on the wall and smiled at her. 

“Maria died. I don’t think she has anymore say in anything we do, Pegs.” 

“You killed her! You almost killed Toni when she was just a baby!” 

“Baby?” Steve laughed, “She was, what, five? She was hardly helpless. Besides, it’s a good thing she didn’t die. I need her now. The world needs her.” 

Peggy held her ground, “Maria was too weak to kill you. I’m not. I’ll give you to the count of three to run.” 

Steve gave her a wicked smile, “Nick thought he could bully me too. I hate bullies, Pegs, you know that. I’ve always hated bullies.” 

“And you became the bully.” 

“Well...you know what they say.” He said as he shrugged, “You either die a hero or become the villain. So I guess I’ll save you from that fate. Say hello to Maria and Nick for me.” 

The window behind her exploded in a rainstorm of glass and the sniper bullet found its mark. Peggy Carter fell to the ground with a gasp and moved no more. Steve kicked down the door and kicked her. She didn’t move. He looked out the broken window and waved. Across the street, Rhodey waved back as he slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder. Steve went to her computer and tucked it under his arm, walking out of the house and climbing into the waiting car outside. 

*********************

High up, crowing the grassy summit of a swelling mount whose sides are wooded near the base with the gnarled trees of the primeval forest stands the old chateau of my ancestors. For centuries its lofty battlements have frowned down upon the wild and rugged countryside about, serving as a home and stronghold for the proud house whose honored line is older even than the moss-grown castle walls. These ancient turrets, stained by the storms of generations and crumbling under the slow yet mighty pressure of time, formed in the ages of feudalism one of the most dreaded and formidable fortress in all of the Nine Realms. From its machicolated parapets and mounted battlements; Dark Elves, Dwarves, and even Frost Giants had been defied, yet never had its spacious halls resounded to the footsteps of the invader. But since those glorious years, all is changed. A poverty but little above the level of dire want, together with a pride of name thar forbids its alleviation by the pursuits of commercial life, have prevented the scions of the line from maintaining the estates in pristine splendour. The falling stones of the walls, the overgrown vegetation in the parks, the dry and dusty moat, the ill-paved courtyards, and toppling towers without, as well as the sagging floors, the worm-eaten waistcoats, and the faded tapestries within, all tell a gloomy tale of fallen grandeur. 

A tiny hand and sweet voice lead him to a throne of bones and they speak of childish wonder and things he has no understanding of, “I’m glad that you’re feeling better. I didn’t know you could even  _ have _ white hair, brother. I’ve never seen anyone in the court with white hair or with wrinkled skin. I’m sorry that you got upset and had to lose control of time.”  

As the ages passed, first one, then another of the four great turrets were left to ruin, until at last but a single tower housed the sadly reduced descendants of the once mighty lords of the estate. It was in one of the vast and gloomy chambers of this remaining tower that Thor Odinson, last of the unhappy and accursed lords, first saw the light of day, ninety long years ago. Thor knew this just as he knew that this was not his place. The gem had changed them and sent them to a different world. His court was no longer silver and gold, warriors and kings from every world coming to feast with them. As he sits on the throne he knows this and he also knows that this is his body for  _ this  _ world, but not his own. He looks down at his lap and Loki, tiny and childlike, sits atop one of his knees, clapping his hands as a witch casts spells of light and illusions around them. 

“Loki?” he asked and his voice was older than he remembered it being, “Loki is that you?” 

Loki turned to nod his head and went back to watching the witch and her magic trick. 

His court is dark and dreary and gone are the kings and courtesans and warriors. Now the court is home to those nameless blights of the outer voids whose faint demon screathings could sometime be heard on the farthest rim of space, yet from which the human world—Midgard—had a limited vision from these terrors and were thus mercifully spared their visage of horror. 

“Look, brother!” Loki said and he turned to gaze at Thor, smile wide and white and full of hope, a tiny crown of silver and emerald atop his raven hair, “Isn’t it wonderful?” 

Thor had never seen his brother so happy, not even recalling memories of childhood, had Loki looked so content and happy as he did in this moment. 

Thor smiled back, smoothing a few strands of thick raven hair away from a pale, childish face, “Yes, Loki. It is wonderful.” It was then that he looked at his hand that had touched Loki and felt horror creep into his soul. Upon each finger was a ring of sinister gold and set in the middle of the rings was one Infinity stone. Save for one empty slot. And as he looked more closely at the tiny crown his brother wore he saw the stone; the yellow Mind Stone was a blight upon the fields of green and ocean of silver that was his little brothers crown. The Reality Stone stone sat proud and glowing on his middle finger, the liquid evil curling and turning around the metal like a snake. 

“When I get older will I be able to do magic like that?” Loki asked in a stage whisper that was still too loud. Thor had seen the magic could do as an adult. It had put even their mothers considerable magic to shame. Thor can feel a tremor start in his hand and he places it in the middle of Loki tiny spine as he answer his little brother. 

“Yes, Loki. One day you shall perform feats of magic so wonderful that they will dazzle and amaze. And you will learn spells so evil that they will make whole world fear you.” 

Loki seems hurt by this admission, “I don’t want to hurt anyone.” 

“I know.” Thor says and places a soft kiss on the crown of his head. His brother looks again at the witch and Thor looks at his rings. The Power Stone was on his index finger and its large oval, egg like shape looked gaudy on his thick fingers. On his thumb he had the empty slot for the last stone it seemed he did not posse, the ring finger housed the Space Stone, and his pinky kept the Time Stone safe. Only the Soul Stone was missing. The door across the room was thrown open and Sif came flying in on her sand colored horse before jumping off and sprinting toward him. 

She still had her golden lock of hair. It swished and hung around her like a cloak of shimmering gold. She bowed and said with gasping breaths, “We have found it, my king. We have found it.” 

Loki clapped his tiny hands in childish joy, “Brother, they finally found it for you!” 

Thor had no idea what it was that he had been searching for. When had he become king in this world? Why was he so tired and why did he sound so old if he looked so young? He asked a question instead, “What have you found, Lady Sif?” 

She grinned at them, a manic and twisted thing on her lovely face, “The Soul Stone. It was not destroyed as the faux god, Thanos said it had been.” 

“Where is it?” Loki said as he bounced on top of Thor knee, “Where is my brothers stone?” 

Sif smiled kindly at Loki, sweet and motherly and it made his stomach curl to see it on her face and have it being directed at Loki, who was now so helpless and small, “On the weak realm of Midgard, my tiny princling. It shall be easy to retrieve from it weak mortal occupant now that we know where it is.” 

At this Thor raised an eyebrow and lifted Loki to his hip as he stood up, “Do you know who this occupant is?” 

“Toni Stark. A girl child of some renown in their realm.” 

Thor felt his stomach drop and his face pale. His court of monsters twittered in excitement. 


	5. level fix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “NO!” Loki wailed and tried to push himself away, “I AM A GOOD AND LOYAL SERVANT! I WILL NOT SPEAK THE WORDS OF MAGIC LIKE YOU HAVE FORBADE ME! I WILL NOT FAIL YOU BROTHER! LOVER AND MASTER OVER THIS THE MOST UNGRATEFUL WRETCH OF A WIFE, LOKI THE LIAR!”

**Brian Greene's nine types**

The American theoretical physicist and string theorist, Brian Greene, discussed nine types of parallel universes:

***********

Tony had to admit that the island was something out of those old 50’s comics and books. The people didn’t even seem to notice or care that these living,  _ self-aware,  _ robots were walking around as their police, medical, and even babysitting jobs(teachers and legit babysitters, those types who watch kids and teach them stuff all day long) and the worse part was, these people were fucking  _ happy  _ about it. Hell, they even said hello to her when they passed and she said hello back to them. This got Tony thinking though as they got the grand tour of the city. Toni had the Infinity Stone inside of her chest, like his own Arc Reactor. Steve from his world was on that train that killed his best friend Bucky, and the Steve from this world was also on that train but took the fall instead. Tony began to see a pattern. 

There were constants and variables. The question now though was how much did these variables change everything? As they came back to the tower, The Cloud Tower T’challa had told them as they left, Toni looked at him for a long time, the whole ride up and then asked him, “Can I show you something?” 

“By all means.” he said. 

T’challa and the others went to the living room and Toni pressed a button that took them down,  _ way  _ down. She took off her sun glasses and began to play with the legs of it, “So when you were in trouble and I got you out...they gave me your stuff. I might have, maybe, looked at it. Like, pull it all apart and put it back together again, looked at it.” 

Tony had to bite his tongue before speaking in a semi-calm tone, “Why? Don’t you have your own toys to break apart and put back together again?” 

“Well, yeah,” she said and then looked at him, “but I was also getting people who had fallen  _ out of the sky  _ freed from a foreign country military police force. I wanted to know who I was saving. And it raised a lot of...well...let me show you and then we can get to the horrible awkward part of this little trip, OK?” 

“You’re the boss.” Tony joked. 

She looked down at her feet, “I wish I wasn’t.” 

The door opened and it was dark, pitch black, void of space silent and dark. Tony felt a shiver roll down his spine as she stepped right into the dark and was gone for all of six seconds before her small hands clapped twice and then the room was flooded with light. Well, room was a lie. It looked more like seven Air Force hangars all rolled into one with a giant, end of the world style, Arc Reactor in the middle of it all. And all along the wall, large pods, about the size of cars. Under them were pods as big as semi trucks. Wires and shiny chrome metal. A huge work bench and seventeen different sized monitors with all kinds of tech begin test run on them. 

And on a medical table sat his armor, the only color in this white and grey little world she had dragged him to. Well, beside them anyway. She over to the armor and folded her arms around her and he came to stand next to her, looking down. It looked the same as when he had left it. She had put her sunglasses down on the table next to one of its’ hands. The only sound was the pleasing hum of finely tuned machines and the small breathy gush of steam from far away. She took a deep breath and then let it out in one giant puff. 

The elevator once more opened and he turned, only to frown. Ultron and Jarvis came striding in and hovered between them and the elevator, watching. Cold clockwork eyes. She glanced at them over her shoulder and then looked down at her feet before speaking, “It’s a weapon. A weapon that uses the reactor technology.”  

He tapped his heart, “This is the battery, little lady.” 

“Why?” 

Tony wished he had a wrench or a drink right now, “Because I almost died making weapons, and then got kidnapped for it. Several times. This battery keeps the shrapnel in my heart from doing its job, and it powers my armor so I can fight the bad guys.” 

She hasn’t stopped looking at her feet, but she reaches a hand out and curls it around the armors own hand, “Maybe you’re the reason you have to fight the bad guys. Maybe if you hadn’t made weapons none of the horrible stuff that happened to you would have come to pass.” 

Tony scoffs, “So says the  _ girl  _ who took me down to her factory.” 

She looks at him at this and frowns, “I never sold any of mine. I kept them here, and gave them to true and tried friends in their hour of need. But they can never turn it against me. My island, my home, the people I have sworn to protect, will never feel the wrath I have crafted with my own hands because I put a fail safe in my tech.” 

“A shield for all the world huh?” Tony mocked. 

She turned to him, her whole body coiled in anger, “What’s so wrong with that?! What’s so wrong with trying to make sure everyone is protected?!” 

“At the error of sounding like Cap,” Tony snapped back at her, “it’s not their choice if you force it! People do have freedoms you can’t take away!” 

Toni gave him the most confused look before rubbing at her own face and doing a stomping spin and asking, “What?! Where did you get that idea from?” 

“Him.” Tony answered and pointed at Ultron, “Lemme tell you how this goes. You have this idea right here, and then one day it goes, naw, fuck it, and decides to kill everything and everyone because humans are the problem with the world. And then everyone blames you, even though you had good intentions.” 

Toni clicks her tongue, “Sounds like you’re not as smart as you think you are.” 

“HA!” Tony said and then placed his hands on his hips, “You sound like Howard. He said the same thing to me.” 

“That’s not what I meant.” 

“Sure it is. People are always honest when they're upset. And I have made you upset.” 

She shakes her head, “I...I’m not…” 

“Your tin soldiers are closer than they were, and have been getting closer the louder we yell. So yeah,” Tony chuckled, “I have upset you and when you are upset, they are programmed to make you feel better.  _ By any means they deem fit.”  _

She looked at down at her feet, holding her hands together and wringing them tightly, “I don’t...the idea started that way. But now I just...I don’t care.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“About the rest of the world. I don’t care. I care about those to whom I am loyal. The rest of the world can either get on board or burn. I don’t care anymore.” she said and then grabbed her sunglasses as she walked away. 

“So that’s it?” 

She didn’t turn around as she called out, “The lab is yours to use. Have fun and don’t break my things.” 

*************

Loki held his hand as they walked through the gardens, humming a tiny tune under his breath as he did so. The Lady Sif walked a few paces behind his weak strides. He was just as young as he remembered himself to be and yet he moved like an old man with a failing back. Loki made no comment on it, Sif nor any…”member” of his court. Why? What had happened in this realm of reality that had caused all of this to happen? Sif though was begin very persistent on the death of Toni Stark and Thor had a feeling that his brother in arms, Anthony, was with his now female counterpart. 

She was going down the list of reason why the girl Stark could  _ not  _ live and Loki seemed to ignore it all. Thor was very much  _ done  _ with this reality. Loki was too, well, to be honest, Loki was what Thor had always wanted Loki to be when they had been younger. A sweet and caring boy that did not have a silver tongue and mean remark at the ready. But Sif was now a woman he never would have cared to meet. She walked around with barely any clothing on, flaunted her blood stained blade and engaged in sexual acts in open view where  _ Loki  _ might see. All of the Warriors had changed. 

Volstagg had no children, in fact he often would swipe a meaty hand at Loki to cause his younger brother to cry. Volstagg now  _ despised  _ children and was now so thin that Thor could see every bone in his hands, and his face was so gaunt it looked more like it belonged on a corpse. Hogun was now a man as calm as a frozen river, planning out each conflict with such skill and over paranoia that Thor often found him muttering battle plans to no one and he had sent him so many “contingency” plans for any of the rebellions that were to take place. Thor had found out that they had slay many kings and queens, burned down many holy sites and had stolen many children to train as soldiers for his army. Hogun was the one who planned out their training. Fandral was now more monk than ladies man. Everything was wrong and he had had  _ enough.  _

_ “ENOUGH!”  _ he bellowed and the sky above roared with fire and lighting. Loki let go of his hand and covered his eyes, squatting down next to his feet, “I will hear no more of this Sif! You will bring me this girl alive and whole and not one single thing of ill will down to her!” 

Sif shrank back and then pouted in a girlish fashion, “But...my sweet lord-”

Thor held up his hand, the one heavy with the Infinity Stones and her mouth snapped shut, “I am the king. Everyone is mine to torment. This girl, Stark, will come to me alive. If I find even one thing,  _ one thing,  _ out of place, we will have more than words, Lady Sif.” 

“Y-yes, my lord.” she said, “The Heathens Three and I will depart when the next new moon arrives on Midgard.” 

“Be gone.” he snapped and she turned quickly away with a look of terror in her eyes. Thor sighed and looked down at Loki. Loki was trembling and Thor bent down to comfort him and was alarmed at to see tears spill from his eyes and turn into diamonds as they hit the ground, “LOKI!” 

Loki gave a tiny hiccup, “Will yo-yo-you do to Sif what you did t-t-to me if she fails?” 

“What are you talking about?”

Loki let out a sob, “I  could never please you in bed and never give you a child like I did with all the others I brought to my bed. So you made me into a child, forever and always!” 

Thor felt horror coil in his stomach and fear lace down his spine, “No. Never. I...tell me how to fix you, Loki. Tell me how to change you back.” 

Loki threw himself on the ground, “This is a test! I will not fail you, brother! I will not speak those words of magic like you have forbade me! I am a good and loyal servant!” 

Thor swept down and hugged Loki to him, wetting his raven hair with his own tears, “this is not a trick, Loki. Please tell me.” 

“NO!” Loki wailed and tried to push himself away, “I AM A GOOD AND LOYAL SERVANT! I WILL NOT SPEAK THE WORDS OF MAGIC LIKE YOU HAVE FORBADE ME! I WILL NOT FAIL YOU BROTHER! LOVER AND MASTER OVER THIS THE MOST UNGRATEFUL WRETCH OF A WIFE, LOKI THE LIAR!” 

******

Steve could feel the grin spread across his face, “Roadie~! Come here.” 

Rhodey came to hover over his shoulder, reading the computer screen, “Huh. And people say we’re crazy.” 

“Oh, poor, poor, Toni,” Steve cooed, “She has no idea what she even is.” 

“An unlucky son of bitch?” 

Steve chuckled, “Not yet. But she will be.” 


	6. level six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodes almost feels bad for Toni. She never had a chance.

## Quilted

The quilted multiverse works only in an infinite universe. With an infinite amount of space, every possible event will occur an infinite number of times. However, the speed of light prevents us from being aware of these other identical areas.

******************

The dinner had been calm and a plan had been started to get them home. Howard had taken his pills and limped to bed with Toni calling her love after him. The kitchen had been cleaned up by them since it was the least they could do. After that Toni said she was going to walk T’challa to his plane since his father had called with “that look on his face” and T’challa had to go home. Their T’challa went with his double. Toni told them they could wander if they wished. So they had.

Clint, Natasha and the twins had gone back into the city to see if anything was different. Sam had fallen to the couch and fell asleep. He and Bucky had watched as Ultron and Jarvis melted into the walls but they could still feel their eyes on them. They wandered the floor, walking past Howards office and saw another door. Steve had a crazy idea but it had, once, worked in the Tower.

“Jarvis?” he called and looked up out of habit.

“Captain.” the voice said from seemingly nowhere.

“What’s behind this door?”

Silence for a beat and then Ultron answered, “That was once the room where Maria Stark held her most important research before her death.”

Bucky squinted up at the ceiling, “What research?”

“Teaching Toni anything and everything she could. Toni was free to ask anything and Maria was happy to answer. Toni has little memory of her mother but what she does have she holds above all else.” Jarvis tells them.

“May we go in?”

Bucky adds, “She did say we could wander.”

They both heard the door unlock and Steve pushed it opened while Bucky flicked on the light. The room was cozy and the walls were bookshelves full of books of fadec colors and titles in languages he couldn’t read. A large bay window with a cushion seat looked out over the ocean and the tiny dots of light that hailed ships passing in the night. A piano sat in one corner, covered with a sheet but the shape unmistakeable. Bucky left the door ajar as they wandered the room. It was cozy but empty. The empty of a missing loved one instead of things. Then Steve saw it and smacked Bucky lightly on his arm.

When Bucky looked at where he pointed he let out a snort. Steve will admit that he liked many of the inventions that the modern era had come up with. But this was not modern. His mother had one. A record player with a spin handle. It had a cracked record in it and next to it sat a tall case that held them all in their sleeves and protective paper to keep them from rubbing against the plastic. Bucky had taken one off the shelf and chuckled as he read the song titles on the back.

The old albums with songs from when they had been in the war sat at the top and the “newer” albums sat at the bottom. The cracked record had a film of plastic over it which had a layer of dust on it. The label on it had been faded with time and he couldn’t tell who sat in the record player with the needle poised to be set down. The record player itself was damaged but repaired. Fire streaks and soot. Things that were hard to get out.

“It was my moms.”

He and Bucky both turn to see Toni standing in the doorway.

“Miss Stark—” he says and she shakes her head and closes the door behind her before climbing into the chair next to a table with a lamp on it.

“My mom liked her albums. She kept them like that and I...I keep her collection going. She loved music almost as much as she loved science. She used to joke with dad that had she not fallen in love with the pursuit of knowing all things she would have became a musician instead.”

Bucky puts the album back, “We’re sorry for your loss.”

“She wasn’t my loss. She was my _mom_. Even when she isn’t here, she’ll always be my mom. Besides, when I start missing her I play her album. The one that we were dancing to when…”

Steve looks down at the cracked album, “What song?”

“ _The Tennessee Waltz_ . She said it was the song playing when the war was over. Her and dad danced to it. It was _their_ song, she said. She would sing along with it.”

Bucky looks in and says, “It’s broken, kiddo.”

Toni nods her head and taps her temple with her finger, “I can still hear it up here. I can still see her too, sometimes, if I try hard enough. I have picture of her. From after the war, and then when she and dad came here. But...I wasn’t around so they are memories for someone else.”

Steve walks over and gets down, squatting, to her eye level, “I don’t think we ever got to hear this song. Buck and me, I mean. I think we mighta been...gone.”

Toni smiles, “Jarvis, play the song.”

From above them the music starts and a woman sings, sad and true and Toni closes her eyes and sways in her seat. She doesn’t sob, but the tears flow down her cheeks anyway. Bucky takes a seat on the floor and braces his back on the wall near the door. Steve sits in front of Toni. As the song fades Toni wipes her eyes and looks at him, and then at Bucky.

“That’s a sad song.” Bucky says.

“It was playing at the party when the war ended. Well, a little after. The song came out in 1950 but the war ended in 1954.” Toni said as she put her feet back down on the floor from where she had tucked them under her.

Steve and Bucky both looked at each other and Bucky said, “The war? Which one?”

“World War two.” Toni said, “I mean it was going on for awhile before the US got involved and sent dad over to help build weapons but...yeah, it ended in 1954.”

Steve shook his head, “The war ended in 1945. Not 1954.”

Toni laughed, “Nope. The second world war started in 1945. The first world war had only ended twenty years earlier.”

Bucky stood up, “That’s the difference.”

Toni looked at him, “What difference?”

“The time for everything. When did world war one start?”

“1935.” she answered.

“In our world,” Steve said, “the first world war started in 1914 and ended in 1918.”

“World war two started when?” Bucky asked.

Toni rung her hands together, “It...it started in 1945.”

“To us that’s when the second world war ended, Toni.” Bucky said.

“The timeline is different.” she breathed. She sped walk out of the room calling for Ultron and Jarvis to get her a new board ready. Steve and Bucky followed her as she muttered.

“Do you think the timeline has something to do with it?” Bucky asked her.

Steve and Bucky had at least two heads on Toni and while she was speed walking they barely had to stride to keep up with her, “Does it help you in anyway, Ms. Stark?”

“Call me, Toni. And yes, it does. Now that I know that the _events_ in your timeline are similar but happen at a different point in time, I might be able to send you home. In theory, anyway.” she said as they all got in the elevator and headed down.

“How so?” Steve asked.

“A prediction of chaotic inflation is the existence of an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite, must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions. Accordingly, an infinite universe will contain an infinite number of Hubble volumes, all having the same physical laws and physical constants. In regard to configurations such as the distribution of matter, almost all will differ from our Hubble volume.”

Bucky clicked his tongue as the doors opened to a huge lab, “Hydra had one like this.”

Steve looked around as she went over to a computer and started typing, “I don’t think she wants to cut you open, Buck.”

“I hope not.”

Toni goes on as though they had never spoken, “However, because there are infinitely many, far beyond the cosmological horizon, there will eventually be Hubble volumes with similar, and even identical, configurations. Tegmark estimates that an identical volume to ours should be about 1010 meters away from us. Given infinite space, there would, in fact, be an infinite number of Hubble volumes identical to ours in the universe. This follows directly from the cosmological principle, wherein it is assumed that our Hubble volume is not special or unique.”

“So...can you find it?” Steve asked.

Tony answers from behind a wall as he comes around, wiping his hands clean of oil, “she just said she could try, Cap. But 1010 meters away from us she’d have to make a circle since she doesn’t know where _we_ even came from.”

“And space has no directions in it. Up, down, left, right, nothing. It just is.” Bucky said and leaned on the workbench behind him, “She’d have to keep looking for it until she found it.”

“Or I cheat.” she said with a chuckle in her voice, “I can call in a favor. Xavier does owe me one and if I could borrow that Big Brother mental thing he has this would go a lot easier.”

“Charles Xavier?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” she says and waves her hand flippantly at them without turning her back, “I helped him out. About two or three years ago, he needed to smuggle people to the safe zone for mutants. Genosha. But the UN wanted them dead so he asked to hide them here and I said sure. They helped me out and then I sent them on their way when the heat died down. He owes me one.”

“Who were they?” Tony asked.

“A man named Logan, a lady named Ororo and some kid that could go through walls. She was nice. They stayed a year and then left. They helped out with the farms.”

Bucky opens his mouth to speak and the whole room goes a deep red and a long high pitched scream sounds. They all cover their ears. The noise stops and Toni looks afraid. Bucky asks, “What the hell was that?”

“No.” Toni breaths and then takes off back to the elevator. They follow after. As they ascend, Tony hears his cell and fishes it out of his pocket. As soon as he answers he can hear Natasha on the other end. Tony puts it on speaker.

“We have a problem.” she says.

“What happened?” Steve asks.

“Hydra came to play and so did a few Asgardians. We have them fighting each other right now but we need some help.” Clint yelled as something exploded in the background.

Toni looks down at her feet, “That son a bitch.”

“Well help you.” Bucky said, “I owe Hydra for the shit they did to me.”

“Get in line.” she snapped at him.

Tony shook his head, “We’re on our way now.”

“Oh good!” they heard Pietro laugh, “Bruce is here!”

Toni glared at the phone and then at Tony, “If Mr. Banner does decide to “Hulk Smash” my island, you and I are going to fix it. Got it?”

“Brucie-bear will...try and be gentle.”

“He can go as rough as he wants on those fucks,” she said and tied up her hair out of her face, “but my people aren’t a part of this.”

“Where is all our gear?” Steve asked as the doors opened. Toni ran to the wall that Ultron and Jarvis had melted into and typed in a code on the small light panel on it. All of the gear was there. She looked at them with a cold look on her young face.

“Get ready for a wild night, gentlemen.” she said and ran up to her room.

*******************

Steve bit into the granola bar as he watched the screens in front of him. He didn’t know who these people in period clothing were but damn if they didn’t know how to fight. He thought it funny that all those robots Toni had built had been using their own bodies to shield the people of her island. Ushering them into safety bunkers. Poor, sweet, Toni. Rhodes came to stand next to him. Steve waited for him to speak his mind.

“Sir,” he said softly, “if we can’t get Toni...will be taking her double instead?”

Steve looked at him out of the corner of his eye, “Why settle for the generic when the brand name is right there? Toni will come willingly. After all,” he chuckled and turned to look at the back of the place where his fail safe sat, “we won’t be giving her much of a choice.”

“Should I send out our task force?” Rhodes asked softly.

“Yes,” Steve said, “and you and I will be going with. I want to see the look on her face when she knows I’ve beaten her.”

“Sir.” Rhodes said and went to get the strike team ready. He had his own name that they had given him for this time. War Patriot. The others each had their own skills. The woman named Carol Danvers, AKA, Colonel Discord. She was a tough bitch who had taken out a whole city with her bare hands. ‘

Steve had pitched her a good sale and she had been with them for ten years. Hank Pym had once been a scientist of some regard but his own work backfired on him. They called him Microman now, and he often helped them with his mind. Steve had told him about a cure that was bullshit. Rhodes thinks he stays because he knows that nothing he ever does after this will redeem him of the horrible shit they’ve done. At least Rhodes understands those two. The girl they picked up is wonder.

Janet Van Dyne, or rather Yellowjacket, is just crazy. No older than Toni Stark and she has a kill count almost as high as his. Simon Williams is just unstable and they let him go when they have the chance. Not so much a strike team as much as a murder squad. Rhodes feels bad for Toni. Steve had been planning this for years and was just waiting for the right moment. She never had a chance.


	7. level seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The universe in unforgiving. People are a fifty-fifty spilt.

**Inflationary**

The inflationary multiverse is composed of various pockets in which inflation fields collapse and form new universes.

********************

Thor wants to read the book but his eyes keep looking at the rings on his hand. Only the soul stone is missing. The space stone, the reality, the power, the mind, and the time stone sit on his hand, glowing and heavy. He could bend space around himself, make reality mean nothing and control the mind. Time was now a toy and his strength was now triple what it had been. And yet he is so  _ tired,  _ and his body seems to be breaking down. Then again, his father had once said that about the stones. 

The being who once held them was truly a god, unlike them. These powers were what they had before they died. Loki—his Loki from his world—had asked what happened to that being. Odin had said that they had been so lonely that had ended their immortal life and only the stones remained. Only the power that they had wielded had survived the suicide.  He uses his other hand to cover the stones. He looks up as the humming of Loki reaches his ears, and he looks up to look at his little brother. 

Loki looks at the books in the library but he does not go to them, even though Thor can sense he wants to. Thor wants him to make a snappy remark at his expense, to read the books on the golden shelves. The use his magic and his wit like he used to. Now he doesn’t want to do  _ anything  _ unless Thor tells him to. Now he looks for a way to change him back from this child who cowers in terror of him to his brother who laughed at his power. His hands shake as he flips through the pages, looking for the spell this version of himself had used on Loki. It has been slow going and he asked his court to find him anyone who can break the spell. 

He would ask Loki but he cuts at himself when Thor asks, saying he knows better. So it comes as little shock when he is told they have found a man who might help. A man called Strange. At this, Thor pauses. He had met Steven Strange once or twice before. He wonders if this is him. The man they bring him is Steven Strange but his hands are fine: they do not shake or shiver, they are not covered in scars. 

And he is now old, his hair is white and he wears thick glasses. He uses a can to walk in, looking around. Thor stands and motions to the chair in front of his desk he is reading at. Strange sits down and folds his hands on top of the table. Thor sits once more, and looking at him he doesn’t see the man he knows. He doesn’t see the man who became the Sorcerer Supreme. Thor looks down at the book he has been reading, “They say you can help me with my brother.” 

“You need a spell.” 

“Yes.” Thor says, “I need to change him back to what he used to be.” 

“And what was he before?” 

“Himself.” 

Strange nods his head and looks at Loki for a moment and then down at his hands, “I will be frank, your highness. I have been studying the mystic arts since I was a young man, and I use it to keep my hands steady even in my old age. But whatever spell you used to curse him is powerful. You might want to ask someone else.” 

“Like who?” Thor asks as he waves his ring heavy hand at the library, “Who else can help me fix my brother?” 

“Whoever has the last stone you covet. They would be able to fix him.” 

Thor rubs at his head. Toni Stark is his only hope and the stone lies inside of her heart. It is keeping her alive. The door to the library burst open and they all look toward it. Sif limps in, covered in soot and blood. She is holding onto a stump of her arm and the blood trails after her as she comes toward them. She takes gasping breaths as she speaks. 

“My king...my king…” 

“Sif!” he gets to his feet and goes to her, catching her before she can fall. She clings to his cloak and Loki hovers near them. She is missing her arm and the lower half of her jaw seems to be broken. Thor calls for a medic. 

“My king…” 

“Hush.” 

“The...girl...is...lost...to us.” she says and then she stops moving. Loki places a hand on his shoulder and his voice is tiny in Thor's ear.

“She’s dead.” 

**********************

Steve isn’t in a rush, he has all the time he needs as he puts his failsafe into place. Two streets over he sees something catch fire and the screams are being blocked out by his music. Four of her little robot soldiers try and stop him. He aims his gun and pops them into pieces with the explosive bullets. They spark as he passes them. Silly girl. He’s a master of war, and she can barely understand the rules. 

But that was fine. What he had in mind for her was not this. She would be locked away to make him weapons, to spin straw into gold. Come hell or high water, Toni Stark was leaving home tonight. As he rounds a corner he stops. Four people are there and they arm armed to the teeth. Three men and woman. 

He looks them over and scoffs. They look like they’re dressed for a fair, not a fight. The woman sees him and gives him a sultry smile. He keeps his distance at the other end of the street, taking out his earbuds to hear them. 

“Good sir!” the woman calls out sweetly, “Can you tell us where we are?” 

“A war zone.” he says and reloads his gun, keeping an eye on them. 

One man smirks at him, “We know that much, mortal. Is this the home of Antonia Stark?” 

Steve pauses at this and folds his arms, the gun loose in his grip, “Depends.” 

The woman moves closer to him and her smile never wavers, “Our loving and kind king wishes to meet the Lady Stark. The current owner of the soul stone. A stone of  _ infinity.”  _

Steve raises an eyebrow at her. This is news to him. A device that can mimic souls? Well that would explain why Toni was able to make such high functioning robots with self-aware of AI. All she had to do was drop a soul into the machine and leave it be. Sneaky girl! Then again, why not use it if you have it to your advantage? 

Steve chuckled at the odd woman, and shaking his head asked her, “And what is an infinity stone?” 

“Power.” one of the men snaps at him. Steve couldn’t help it, he threw up his middle finger  at the man and then what he said really reached him. Steve had to think about that. If these things were so powerful then why did Toni have one? She didn’t want power, not even when she had it. So why would she have a thing that these  _ people  _ wanted? Or rather their king—whoever that was. 

“All me to introduce us.” the woman says, “I am the Lady Sif and these are my friends. The Heathens Three.”

Steve smiles and mockingly bows at her, “Captain Rogers. They call me The Traitor.”

“Oh~!” Sif coos and draws her weapon, “How wonderful. Now...where is Lady Stark?” 

Steve smirked and her and shot one of the men in the head. He gave a gurgle of pain and he shook on the ground as he died. Sif turned to look at him, as did the other two men, as the first man fell still on the ground. Steve shot the last shot into the air and they all looked at him. He got rid of the casings and reloaded it. Sif and the others charged at him, weapons drawn and Steve met them halfway. He chuckled as he dodged each attack and shot at them, hitting them in the legs and arms, “What does a soul stone do?” 

“We’ll never tell you!” Sif snapped as he used his gun to block her sword. 

“One way or another,” he said and kicked Sif in the crotch, and shot a bullet into the second mans head and then turned to shot the last one in the head. Both gave a gurgle of death and Steve pointed the gun at Sif, as she glared up at him, “you’ll tell me what a soul stone does, Lady Sif. One way or another, you’ll tell them what this...infinity stone is and what it does.” 

**********************

Natasha slid under a car that was thrown at her and then twisted back onto her feet to keep running, ducking and weaving as she went. She didn’t know this world even  _ had  _ a Carol Danvers. Or that she was part of HYDRA. This world just kept getting better and better. Bruce and Carol were going at it near the beach. The twins were trying to fight Simon Williams and his unstable power. Steve and Bucky had gotten to tag-team Hank Pym as he got bigger and smaller at will.

Clint and her had gotten stuck with Janet Van Dyne. The military robots that Toni had were trying to keep the people safe. The oddest thing was that Pepper Potts had also joined the fight in her own suit of armor. Toni was with her father trying to get people down into safety. Sam was providing aerial support. The HYDRA planes were dropping bombs and shaking the whole island that made up the capital. She heard it before she saw it and she threw herself down to the street. 

A rocket flew overhead and exploded a building. She lifted her head and looked behind her. She shook her head. Rhodey? He moved forward, reloading the rocket launcher as he did. He didn’t look good. He looked tired and angry. 

He looked like how she use to look whenever she got out of the red room. She got to her feet and took her own gun out. Rhodey looked at her and then looked to the left, looking at something she couldn’t see. 

“Where’s Toni?” he asked her as he looked back at her. 

“She’s helping her father.” 

“You mean she’s helping her people and her father is helping her.” Rhodey nodded his head, “Sounds about right. She’s a good girl. You come from that other world?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Am I there?” 

“Yeah. You and Tony are friends.” 

Rhodey smiled, “That sounds nice.” 

Natasha is on the balls of her feet when he uses the rocket launcher as a bat to try and hit her. He gets her hand holding the gun. She herself was able to move away. She shook out her hand and Rhodey got a better grip on his rocket launcher. She glared at him and he looked forlorn. He looked like he wanted to ask her questions but he couldn’t. She dodged as he attacked her, telling him about his friendship with Tony. 

“In my world, you and Tony meet when the both of you are in college. You stay with him throughout your adult life and he is the one person who won’t speak ill of. He makes you anything you want, and you never ask him, he just does it. When he made the first suit of armor you almost shot him down and now the two of you laugh about it because you would have never. You would have never hurt Tony.” 

The more she talked the angrier he got. 

“SHUT UP!” he yelled at her, his eyes watering, “IT ISN’T REAL! SO SHUT UP!” 

She backed up, getting ready to do a backflip, when her heel catches a rock and she drops to the ground. He stands over her, rocket launcher held high, ready to smack it down onto her head. She lifts her arms to try and lessen the damage to her skull. A rock hits Rhodey in the temple and he turns to look who threw it. Natasha looks as well. Toni stands there, her hands clenched at her sides and her face stern. Rhodey lowers the rocket launcher as she strides over to them, to stand between them. 

Rhodey just looks at her, and Toni looks at him. Natasha can she that her hands are shaking. Natasha gets back to her feet. 

“Stop it.” Toni says. 

“Steve wants you to come with us.” Rhodey says softly. Toni looks down at her feet and then shakes her head. 

“I can’t.” 

“If you don’t...he’ll kill everyone. And not just here.” 

Toni takes a deep breath and looks at Natasha. Her lower lip shakes but Toni doesn’t cry. She speaks clearly, “Tell my dad I love him.” 

Natasha isn’t expecting to get sucker punched by Toni. 


	8. level eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excuse me, can I have your attention please? For just a moment. Will the real Toni Stark please stand up? We're about to have a problem here.

**Brane**

The brane multiverse follows from M-theory and states that our universe is a 3-dimensional brane that exists with many others on a higher-dimensional brane or "bulk". Particles are bound to their respective branes except for gravity.

**************************

Steve had never seen either of these things up close. Toni had made these things huge it seemed. At seven feet each, he was smaller and thinner than both of them. Interesting. Both of these things looked human, but Steve knew better. He had seen them before Toni had made them fake skin to blend in better. He had been following Toni and her actions since she had been young.

After all, she was the only person who could boast that she had survived a visit from him. No one except her had even survived a visit from him. He had been a little disappointed that he had gotten into the Cloud Tower so easily. But now he knew why. Toni often left her cage when the need called for it, but it seemed that her first two AI robots never really left. He had seen the two bodies upstairs as they tried to defend the island. And now they stood in front of him, blocking him going any further into the large workshop. 

He smirked. Toni, Toni, Toni. Smart girl that she was and had done something better than make an AI. She had made a form of life that knew how to make life and  _ understood  _ their actions. Toni had become something like a god. Steve chuckled. Maybe it was more than luck that Toni survived after all. 

He kept his stance low and his hips loose. He needed to be able to dodge. He was a super soldier, but even he was still human. The machines had different colored eyes. One had red and the other blue. 

Red eyes spoke first, “Steven Grant Rogers, AKA Captain Rogers, AKA The Traitor. Wanted in 150 different countries.” 

“Known for the assassination of several high profile world leaders, humanitarians and Maria Stark.” blue eyes said softly, “Leader of HYDRA.” 

Steve gave a semi bow at his waist, a mocking smile on his face, “My reputation proceeds me. But I think Toni has always been more upset about her mother, than anyone else. Do you two have names? I’m sure you do. Toni does love to name her toys.” 

Red eyes scowled, “I am Ultron and he is Jarvis.” 

“Jarvis?” Steve chuckled and slowly began to move around them, and they kept moving to be in front of him, “Like her old butler? How sentimental.” 

Jarvis inclined his head, “Toni is an empathetic child. She mourned him for a long time.” 

“I bet.” Steve scoffed and then shook his head, “This is taking too long. I need to get to the main frame. Move.” 

Ultron smirked, “Make us.” 

**************************

Rhodey hailed the transport and when it landed, Toni walked up the ramp without being asked to and strapped herself in without a word. As he told the pilot to take them up, he saw her looking at the bombs in the back. She was gripping her knees tightly. 

“It was a fail safe.” Rhodey told her softly. 

“I know that.” she said sharply, “My else bring a nuke with you?” 

Rhodey ducks his head and fishes out the radio from his pocket, “Abort mission. Miss Stark is on transport.” 

A few voices call back that they are on their way and then one voice makes her skin crawl, “Toni. Toni~!” 

Rhodey hands her the radio and she glares down at it, “Rogers.” 

“Oh, don’t be that way. With only minimal civilian deaths, property damage and a still stable economy, you fared better than any other country I’ve seen fit to hit.” 

“Magneto would beg to differ, Rogers.” 

“That is a whole country of mutants, sweetie-pie. But I did my fucking best and Magneto is still missing his arm.” Steve gloats. 

Toni sneers down at the radio, “He swore to pay you back for that.” 

Steve laughs, “I would like to see him try.” 

The radio cuts out with a hiss of static and Toni hands it back to Rhodey. Rhodey tucks it away and then looks down at Toni for a long moment. She is so young. Rhodey takes a seat across from her, “What about your two AI things?” 

Toni looks at him with a side eye for a moment and then tucks her legs closer to her, “You mean Jarvis and Ultron? What about them?” 

“Yeah. Won’t they come for you?” 

“No. I programmed them. And I’m smart enough to get away without them.” 

“Are you sure?” 

Toni rest her head on her knees, “If you think I can’t outsmart a fucking Nazi and his sheep then you have no idea what I can do.” 

*****************

Howard looks down at the metal at his feet, twisted and torn apart. Steve had been ruthless. He knows that the original Ultron and Jarvis are fine but these clones had been made of the same material as them and Steve had gone through them as though they had been cheap war machines. Ultron and Jarvis stand next to him, also looking down. The Avengers are busy cleaning up his daughter's city and he is here. The click-click of heels makes him lift his head and turn to watch Pepper stroll up to them. She is still dirty from fighting, but she is a woman who does not know how to rest. She looks down at the metal as well and then back at him. 

“She left with him.” 

Howard nods his head, “Toni has never been able to think of her own well being. But you know that Pepper.” 

“I…” Pepper pauses and collects herself, “I owe Toni a lot. Even I was a different person, I hated myself and everyone else too. It was the reason I took the job to get rid of her. But Toni just...she  _ saw  _ me. She took one look and knew me and never made me feel lesser for my choices. I owe that girl my life.” 

“Many people do. But Toni knew this came was coming and had a plan ready. Jarvis? Ultron?” Howard asked them softly. 

“Miss Stark has very clear plans.” Jarvis says as he hooks his arms behind himself, “She wants the islands to be safe and secure before any other part of the plan can be set into place. She does not want to add innocent death to a war they have no part in.” 

“After the islands are taken care of, she wants to call in her favors.” 

Pepper looks at them, “As in... _ all  _ of the favors she’s gotten over the years?” 

“That is a lot of firepower.” Howard remarks. 

“Toni once said,” Ultron informed them, “that if Steve Rogers was going to be an unjust man with no morals, then she would answer him with justice and a moral high ground. She would not stoop to his level.” 

“She was worried he might be beat her with experience.” Jarvis said with a smirk. 

Howard looked down at the metal, “Steve needs her alive. He won’t so much as grab at her if he thinks it will kill her.” 

“Why would he need her?” Pepper wonders. 

“Because is the only person smart enough to build him an army like her own.” 

Ultron looked at the pods, “She said to never activate them. Unless she died.” 

“Upon her death, the machines only have a two month life span. They die after.” Jarvis sighed heavily. 

“Why do that?” Pepper snapped, “She made an army to conquer the damn world, why not let them out and finish this?!” 

A loud noise made Pepper flinch and the lights dimmed. On the far wall a video began to play. Ultron and Jarvis are only metal torsos with head and a single arm each. Toni is much younger and she is fixing the camera until it sits just how she wants it. Her voice comes over the speakers, _ “Ok...test number one of the new hive in AI controlled simulations. This is a prototype of what I want to build.”  _

_ She hold up a small version of a Hulk Buster. Jarvis extends his hand once she places it in the glass maze with a living mouse. The machine kills it with such force the blood coats the glass. Toni sighs and Jarvis asks her, “Was that...wrong?”  _

_ “Why kill the mouse?”  _

_ “The mouse is a metaphor for the enemy.” Ultron speaks, “In order to survive one must be stronger than their enemy.”  _

_ “The bible says different.” Toni jokes, “But if you are already smarter than the enemy, the need for strength is secondary.”  _

_ “An army of us would never lose a war for you.” Jarvis tells her.  _

_ “You’re right. But I would be the single most hated person in the world. Just because I have the ability to do something doesn’t mean I should do it. And if I have to go to war, I want people to see how horrible it can be. So no one will never want to go to war again.”  _

_ “Humans will always want to fight.” Ultron tells her.  _

_ “I know. But I can dream, Ultron. There is no harm in a dream.”  _

The video cuts out. 

Pepper wipes her eyes, “I was...where was I? She had made me her CFO and sound board. I was always hanging out with her when she did these little videos. Where was I?” 

“Records show that you had just gone in for top surgery, Miss Pots.” Jarvis tells her. 

Ultron turns to her, “Toni brought you flowers and a little cake. Said she’d take you shopping when you got better.” 

“That’s right...she was happy for me. I didn’t know that was also the day that she built the Legion. Or at least had the idea for it.” Pepper admits.

“Toni said you inspired her to think bigger than herself.” Jarvis tells her. 

************************

Bucky wipes the sweat off his brow as he helps. The people of the Stoic Islands sweep up the debris and tend to the wounded. The robots are building up new places to live and they make sure the hospital is still working. An old woman being trailed by a large group of small children hands out bottled water and easy to eat food. The children help her. Steve smacks his head on the concrete slab they are holding up as the robot breaks it down to make a new one. Bucky kicks his ankle. Steve looks at him with his forehead still pressed into the concrete. Bucky raises an eyebrow at him and Steve rolls his eyes. 

“We need to do something.” he tells Bucky. 

Bucky keeps chewing his gum and snaps it as he speaks, “We are. Can you imagine how she'd feel if we leave her people and country to fend for themselves?” 

“I—this version of me just attacked a small island nation, killed who knows how many people who didn’t deserve it, kidnapped a fifteen year old girl, and no one in the whole world knows where his base of operations is.” Steve listed off and then closed his eyes, “Who knows what he’ll do to her.” 

“Nothing.” Bucky says as he pops his gum, “Remember Steve,  _ I  _ was HYDRA for a long time. I might not remember everything, but what they said in regards to people I can never forget. In our world they wanted Tony for his brain too, but felt that the risk outweighed the benefits after he became Iron Man. They never wanted to hurt him though. Not even brainwashing. They had planned on using his own humanity against him to get him to do what they wanted.” 

“This Toni isn’t Iron Man.” 

“Which means they no longer have a risk/benefit factor to make them think twice about it. But this is good for us, Steve.” Bucky grunted as the last of the slab was melted away and a new one was being materialized in front of them for a store that had been destroyed. 

“How?” Steve snapped at him, arms out and his tone exasperated, “How is this good for us, Buck?” 

“Like you said, they took a fiteen year old girl.” Bucky gave him a sharp animal, “There is no animal  _ alive  _ on this planet as cruel, cunning or unstable. I feel almost sorry for them. But only almost, Stevie.” 

Steve shakes his head and then it hits him. He had read up on all the modern world. All the medical advancements since he had gone under. Teenagers were unstable because all of their chemical makeup was still being ironed out and their bodies were getting ready to enter adulthood. Being moody was a constant. But he remembers girls. Not women, no,  _ girls.  _

Girl could sometimes be crueler than the boys because they knew how to spin a good lie without so much a blinking. Toni was a world leader who had to lie everyday to men who had  _ years  _ on her and not once did they question her because she was the better liar. Steve feels a smile tug at his face. Their Tony could talk circles around him all day—not often in battle—but in general conversation. He had gotten better had hearing the lies but Tony had gotten better at telling them. This version of Steve Rogers though? He had never been around a Tony Stark before. 

He was in for a rude awakening when he finally got to talk to Toni Stark. Because if she was even half as smart as Tony, well, she’d be running HYDRA before the month was out and no one would ever know. Bucky smirks at him and Steve can’t hold back the laugh. Toni had a reason to erase HYDRA from the face of existence. They had killed her mother and she had never forgiven them for that. 

“Between you and me Buck,” Steve chuckles, “if I was a betting man, I’d take the girl.” 

“Everyone would. No one wants to back an asshole.” Bucky chuckles. 

*****************

As they walk off the stealth plane and down the ramp, he keeps a firm grip on her upper arm. They get to a large conveyor belt and he pushes her toward it. He points at it. 

“That is make sure you don’t sneak anything back to HQ with us, Toni. Up you go.” 

Toni gave him a sharp smile, “You won’t like what you find, Rogers.” 

“GO.” 

She rolls her eyes and gets on. As she goes through the machine gives a loud screech and Steve goes over to see. He can feel his eye twitch. A machine, a perfect copy. A robot. He hears it chuckle as watches as all of the metal insides move with it, “I told you, didn’t I? You wouldn’t like what you found.” 

Steve grabs it once it has come out of the machine and shakes it. His hands dent the metal arms, “Where is she?” he hisses at it. 

The machine smirks with her face, “Asgard.” 

He punches the machine hard enough to get through to the other side of its skull. He thing falls limp to the ground on his feet. 


	9. level nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monsters are made not born.

**Cyclic**

The cyclic multiverse (via the ekpyrotic scenario) has multiple branes (each a universe) that have collided, causing Big Bangs. The universes bounce back and pass through time until they are pulled back together and again collide, destroying the old contents and creating them anew.

******************

Toni is sitting in a large room that is mostly smooth marble and stunning silver. A little boy hovers near the door of the room and his eyes glow such a vibrant green. His hair is long and black and smooth. Everytime she looks at him he ducks his head down. Like he is embarrassed that she is looking at him. The large oak door opens and inside comes an old man. His hair is fading from blonde to silver and his skin is not yet leather tough. 

He is wearing kingly garb and he smiles at her. On one hand sit many rings that seem to ooze a dark miasma that tickles her nose and makes her heart hurt. He slowly takes a seat across from her and the little boy comes to stand by his elbow. The older man nods his head at her. 

“Toni.” 

“That’s me. And you are, sir?” 

The man smiles even more, “The Mighty Thor. And this is my little brother, Loki.” 

She nods her head, “Nice to meet you.” 

“I suppose you are wondering why you here.” Thor chuckled.

“It had crossed my mind when you picked me up before I sent out my robot clone, yes.” Toni says with a smirk on her face, “But I thought it would be rude to just blurt that out.”

Thor pointed at her chest, “You hold an Infinity Stone inside of your chest. As you can see—and as I’m sure you’ve no doubt figured out by now—the rings on my fingers hold the others. The set almost complete, only your stone is left.” 

“So...you’re going to kill me to get it then?” Toni asks him as she folds her arms over her chest. Thor shakes his head. 

“No.” he admits, “I am...you have met the others from my world, have you not? Tony Stark and Steve Rogers? The Avengers?” 

Toni frowns, “You’re from the other world?” 

“Yes,” Thor coughs, “I am. I believe I traded places with this world's Thor when we came through and he took my place in our world.” 

“Interesting.” Toni muttered. 

Thor raised his eyebrow at her, “How so?”

“A prediction of chaotic inflation is the existence of an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite, must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions. Accordingly, an infinite universe will contain an infinite number of Hubble volumes, all having the same physical laws and physical constants. In regard to configurations such as the distribution of matter, almost all will differ from our Hubble volume. However, because there are infinitely many, far beyond the cosmological horizon, there will eventually be Hubble volumes with similar, and even identical, configurations. Tegmark estimates that an identical volume to ours should be about 1010 meters away from us. Given infinite space, there would, in fact, be an infinite number of Hubble volumes identical to ours in the universe. This follows directly from the cosmological principle, wherein it is assumed that our Hubble volume is not special or unique.” 

“You think you could send us back?” Thor said with a look of shock on his face.

Toni shook her head, “I would need so much power to do that it isn’t even funny to think about it. I can’t send anyone home. But you? With all this tech? You might be able to.”

Thor looks down at his hand holding the rings and then looks at her, “You mean the  _ Stones  _ have enough power to send us back. Right?” 

Toni nods her head and Loki looks at her with a pinched expression. He tugs at his hair and speaks softly, “If you had her stone, brother, you would be the ruler of all the universe. None would dare oppose you.” 

“Loki,” Thor sighed, “Toni is a friend. I’m not going to take her stone. It is all that is keeping her alive. Isn’t it?” he looked at her with a stern expression. 

“Yeah,” she said softly, “my mom found the stone in the ocean near our island. She kept it for study and when she died and I got hurt...my dad made a split second choice. The stone kept me alive and it made me…” 

“Smarter?” 

“I guess that’s a word for it.” she sighed. 

Loki gave a bright smile, “It made her a monster.”

“ _ Loki. _ ” Thor snapped and Loki seemed to shrink down into himself. 

Toni nodded her head, “He isn’t wrong. The things I can do...they make me scared of myself. I mean I  _ made  _ not one but two— **_TWO_ ** —highly capable A.I that are so self aware they might as well be human. A mad man who killed my mother tried to kidnap me today so I could make him an army like my Legion.” 

“Legion?” Thor asked. 

Loki grabbed his arm with both of his tiny hands, “Legion, brother.  _ Legion.  _ An army that is seemingly infinite and can never tire. They do not get hungry, or tired, or question orders. They act and obey their creator. A blight upon the world.” 

“I don’t let them. They are defenders, not active warriors.” Toni objected. It sounded hollow to her ears. 

Loki leered at her, “Because you say so,  _ now.  _ But who is to say you can’t change your mind? Minds change often, like ocean tide.” 

“ **_Loki.”_ ** Thor warned even more sternly and Loki ducked behind his chair and Thor shook his hand and then looked at her, “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine. Again, he’s not wrong. So I guess now we come to the question. What are you going to do?” Toni asked him and leaned back in her chair. 

*****************

Steve paced and kicked at the robot with her face every time he passed it. He was  _ livid.  _ That girl—smart, clever girl that she was—had double crossed him and he had fallen for it like a fool. Like a rookie on the battlefield. Toni had been taken by people of myth. But what if they were real? He remembers HYDRA during the war, how they had been looking for things of myth.

They had found one of those things of myth, but it had been taken by Howard and now...his sweet little girl had made it a source of renewable energy along with the the ocean currents. Toni had been a force of nature. Steve had only wanted to her to  _ see  _ her own potential and how she could rule the world. No one would be able to fight her. No one would be able to outsmart her. She would be a god among men and he had wanted her to see that. To see what he saw when he looked at her. 

A god among humans who didn’t know she was a god. She was better than them all. Even him. He stopped pacing and looked at Rhodey. 

“You were suppose to be watching her.” he said softly to Rhodey. Rhodey kept looking down at his feet as Steve moved to stand right in front of him. 

“I know, sir.” he answered just as softly. 

Steve grabbed him back the back of his neck and pulled their forehead together, “So  _ how  _ do you explain the robot?” 

“She had switched it out,” Rhodey answered, not meeting his eyes, “before we found her. She had a plan for this, sir.” 

Steve chuckled and let him go, “Sweet, smart, girl. She has been planning for this for a long, long time. Did I really leave such an impression on her?” Rhodey said nothing, “Whatever. This means nothing. Toni won’t stay away long. Not if we _ make  _ her come back.” 

“Shall I start Operation: Hulk Buster?” Rhodey asks him as Steve looks down at the robot that had had her face.  

“No.” he mutters, “Not yet. Ross can wait a little while longer for the green light for his mad science project. For now, let us see what these...Avengers will do.” 

************

“We can’t just sit around here and do  _ nothing  _ while that madman has her!” Pietro snapped and Wanda nods her head. Bruce shakes his head and sighs. 

“We don’t know definitively that Rogers took her.” Bruce tells him as he wraps his wrist. He had taken a hit in the fight and his wrist still stung. Clint scowls at him. 

“So then who did take her?” 

Natasha uses the medical kit to sew up a large gash on her arm and grits her teeth as she uses her belt to brace her pain. She shots the twins a look and Wanda rolls her eyes. 

“What do we know of this world?” she asks and jumps up onto the medical table in the room and crosses her legs, “We know nothing. She might have more enemies than Stark.” 

Pietro laughs, “I don’t doubt it. Stark is a man who doesn’t know how to be anything more than himself. Why should his little clone be any different?” 

Bruce looks at the twins, “You are never going to forgive him, are you?” 

“No.” they said in unison. 

“So even a different version of him will also earn your ire?” Bruce snapped. 

Clint snapped back, “Save it. You and Tony  _ both  _ cause the fuck up with Ultron in our world. She made him here too and nothing Stark has made has ever made  _ anyone's  _ life better.” 

Natasha spit her belt out and spoke evenly at Clint, “That’s not fair, Clint. He didn’t know that Stane had sold his work out.” 

“Boo-hoo.” Pietro mockingly cried and then frowned, “She can’t be any better.” 

“How do you know?” Natasha sighed. 

“We don’t.” Bruce sighed at her and Wanda bared her teeth at them. 

“Look at what’s she done! Who’s to say that she won’t be worse than him?” 

Bruce looked at her and then looked down at his clasped hands, “Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation (MWI) is one of several mainstream interpretations of quantum mechanics. In brief, one aspect of quantum mechanics is that certain observations cannot be predicted absolutely. Instead, there is a range of possible observations, each with a different probability. According to the MWI, each of these possible observations corresponds to a different universe. Suppose a six-sided die is thrown and that the result of the throw corresponds to a quantum mechanics observable. All six possible ways the die can fall correspond to six different universes.” 

“So?” Clint chuckles, “What the hell does that have to with this conversation?” 

“Tegmark argues that a Level III multiverse does not contain more possibilities in the Hubble volume than a Level I or Level II multiverse. In effect, all the different "worlds" created by "splits" in a Level III multiverse with the same physical constants can be found in some Hubble volume in a Level I multiverse.” 

Pietro looked at Wanda, “Science talk. It means nothing to me.” 

“Or me.” Wanda says with a smirk at him. 

Natasha scolds them, “Let Bruce finish and he’ll tell you.” 

Bruce smiled at her and kept going, “Thank you, Tasha. Tegmark wrote that, "The only difference between Level I and Level III is where your doppelgängers reside. In Level I they live elsewhere in good old three-dimensional space. In Level III they live on another quantum branch in infinite-dimensional Hilbert space." Similarly, all Level II bubble universes with different physical constants can, in effect, be found as "worlds" created by "splits" at the moment of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a Level III multiverse. According to Yasunori Nomura,Raphael Bousso, and Leonard Susskind,this is because global spacetime appearing in the (eternally) inflating multiverse is a redundant concept. This implies that the multiverses of Levels I, II, and III are, in fact, the same thing. 

“This hypothesis is referred to as "Multiverse Quantum Many Worlds.” Related to the many-worlds idea are Richard Feynman's multiple histories interpretation and H. Dieter Zeh's many-minds interpretation.” 

“And?” Clint says, “What does that mean?” 

“Tony and Toni are both the same person and both have the choices presented to them to do bad. Toni—the girl—has had a different life than our Tony. But there is no evidence to say that if she the same life she would have had a different life. She might have had the same one. But this world is so different but just close enough that we have a warped view of her.” 

“Because of our own history with our Tony.” Natasha mutters. 

“So we are always going to assume,” Bruce says softly, “the worst of his doppelgängers. Even if all the proof in the world tells us otherwise.” 

The room is silenced by that remark. 

*************

Bucky isn’t hiding. Not really. He just wants a quiet place to think. Marias room is soft and still in the tower and Bucky knows that no one is going to come looking for him here. Except for Howard. Bucky wants to leave and Howard tells him to stay. He puts on the old record and the tune is set to a low volume. 

He uses his thumb to rub at the vinyl player. Bucky watches his back and sees the way it has bent with age. The last Howard he had met had been not a young man but not an old man either. He had killed him and his wife. He looks down at his boots. Howard suddenly speaking make his head jerk back up. 

“After the war,” he says wistfully, “we got to go to a party. In Spain. You and me and the Commandos. God...you and the boys were slamming them back. I was nursing the same warm beer when this song came on and then—there she was. Dressed in cream and a sour look on her face for being dragged to the party when she things to do.” 

“You sound like you really loved her.” Bucky says after a moment. 

Howard chuckles and turns to look at him, “I did. I was an egghead among strong soldiers and each and everyone of them flirted with her. She turned them all down and then she was sitting next to me at the bar. I was still nursing that beer and looking down at it. I was too scared to even say hello. So she did instead.” 

Bucky chuckles, “You spilled your beer on her?” 

“I wish.” Howard sighs and goes to sit in the chair Toni had once been in, “I spilled it on my pants. Looked like I pissed myself. But Maria...my god she took off her head scarf and placed it over it and said she was sorry she startled me. I told her it was fine. Somehow we got to talking about machines and science and stars and then I asked her if I could take her out to lunch and from there it seemed like we had been waiting for each other all our lives.” 

“That sounds…”Bucky trailed off. 

“Corny.” he admits, “Toni used to say it sounded corny. I told her it was. She used to laugh and say that was fine. Corny isn’t bad, she used to say.” 

“She isn’t…” Bucky stops and swallows around the lump in his throat, “she’s not dead, Howard. She’s missing. Missing isn’t dead.” 

“I know that. I doubt my Toni will lie down and die. She’s too stubborn to die like a dog.” Howard chuckled. 

“That’s good.” Bucky said awkwardly, “Being stubborn I mean. Peggy had been stubborn. I think that girls...women...I think they need to be stubborn to be taken seriously. The men who know what they can do, they don’t need to be stubborn, but they wouldn’t be them if they weren’t. The rest of the world just needs to shut up and let them be themselves.” 

“True. True.” Howard pauses and then looks at him, “I have a gift for you, Barnes. Something I held onto after your death. I think it might help you.” 


	10. level ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where, oh where, has my little lamb gone? Oh where, oh where could she be

**Landscape**

The landscape multiverse relies on string theory Calabi–Yau spaces. Quantum fluctuations drop the shapes to a lower energy level, creating a pocket with a set of laws different from that of the surrounding space.

*******************

Tony taps his finger on the edge of the table as the screen in front of him runs the numbers. When they come back in red  _ again  _ he tells it to run the program again. He also wants to laugh. His girl Friday had been made after Jarvis and Ultron. Toni must have had the same thought. She named hers Wednesday. As the numbers run again he hears the door behind him hiss open. The metal steps tell him it is either this worlds Jarvis or Ultron. The numbers come back red again and he grits his teeth, holding his left wrist, and rubbing at it. 

Wednesday snips at him, her accent Australian instead of Irish, “Look, mate. We’ve done this a dozen times now and the picture ain’t changing. The boss  _ isn’t  _ on this planet anymore, right? You lot must known something.” 

“Wednesday is right,” Ultron says and comes to stand next to him, “You aren’t comprehending the position you’re in. So...you said when we first met that you wanted to know where “Thor” was and I will admit to my confusion. Thor is a myth, a god as old as the Norse people. Why in the world would you ask for him? And then it hit me, you  **know** him.” 

Tony looks at him and then hangs his head, “Yeah. I do. But we don’t where he is in this world, or if he even exist!”

“He must, since he sent his warriors here during the fight.” Ultron said as he folded his arms. Tony snapped his head to look at him. 

“What?” 

Wednesday pulled up video footage on the screen, “Rogers was fighting them. He killed not a single one of them, but he did injure them. The audio is piss poor but we did catch a name. Sif. She’s a myth too.” 

“Thor is alive.” Tony breaths and then turns to go tell the others before he stops and looks at Ultron, a frown on his face, “Lemme ask you something, Ultron, because I am  _ very curious  _ as to the answer.”

“Ask away.” 

“Why?” 

“Specify.”

Tony rubs at his neck, “When I made you...in my world, I mean...you went off the rails crazy and tried to kill all of humanity. And I used an infinity stone to do it, even though I didn’t know if at the time. So why,  **_why,_ ** do you not do the same thing? Why do you not break free of the rules she gave you and just...go?” 

“I suppose...I do it because I am afraid. And because I love her.” 

“You love her?” Tony scoffs.

Ultron tilts his head, “I remember when I first came online. She was looking down at me and when she saw my eyes open she smiled at me and said I was going to do great and wonderful things. Everything I learned, she taught me, or I learned on my own. But she was always so proud of me and Jarvis for just being. For no other reason than being alive, she was proud of us. I would hate for her to be disappointed in us.” 

“You’re kidding me, right? That’s it? Because you love her?” Tony says and shakes his head, turning and going to the elevator, “I’ll admit I’m jealous. I could never program any of my A.I to be such wonderful liars.” 

“It isn’t a lie.” Ultron says as the elevator doors close. 

Wednesday scoffs at him, “It weren’t the truth. Why not tell him what Toni can do ta ya if ya break her rules?” 

“Because Toni will never do it. So I will never push her that far to even consider it.” 

*******************

Stephen Strange watched as this child explained her plans to this ancient being and he not only listened, he was going to agree to it. The trickster god only watched and Stephen knew that soon this king would ask again to undo his spell. What he did not know was that a curse like the one choking his brother was one brought out by hate and spite and deep seated kind of madness that had no cure. Stephen held his doubts that Toni Stark would be able to tear the curse away from Loki. As Toni nodded her head to what Thor was saying, the question finally came, and Stephen wanted to shake his head. 

“Then the plan is set. We shall help you with this universes Steve Rogers and you shall help us go back home.” Thor clapped his hands together and then glanced at Loki, “Lady Stark...I must ask you for another favor, if you are able.” 

Toni tugged her hair up into a ponytail, “Shoot.” 

“Loki is my little brother, but he should not be so young. I fear my other self may have cursed him to be a child. I tried to undo it, but I am not well versed in magic.” 

Toni looks at him and then at Stephen, “So you called the magic man to try and help you instead. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he can’t. Right?” 

“Indeed. He said that you might be able to because you hold an Infinity Stone as well.” Thor lamented and then looked at Loki, beckoning him over, “Loki. Please come here.” 

Loki went to his brother and stood next him, eyes downcast as Toni looked at him. Loki bowed to her, “Lady Stark.” 

“When did you get cursed?” 

Loki looked at her with wide and frightened eyes, “Tis not a curse, Lady Stark. This was a boon that I most grateful to my liege for.” 

“Sure,” Toni said as she crossed her arms with a skeptical expression, “I believe that. My question still stands. It’ll help me. Maybe.” 

Loki licked his lips and then shot a look at Thor before answering, “Several thousand years, Lady Stark.” 

“Huh.” 

“Huh?” 

Toni itched at her neck, “That’s a long time to be a kid, dude.” 

Thor lowered his head in shame. 

“No, it has been wonderful!” Loki portested to her and then looked up at Thor, “I has been brother. I would not lie to you!” 

Toni shook her head and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly in her own, “It’s time to grow up, Loki.” 

Stephen grabbed Thor as the blue shimmering light engulfed them both. Stephen threw up a shield around himself and Thor. It bubbled and cracked in places from the force of the magic. As the light faded, Toni was shaking her hand, trying to cool it down, and Loki stood before her, a man grown. His black hair brushed the floor and his skin was as blue as the magic that turned him back. Under him grew a sheet a ice. He turned red eyes to Thor and a tear froze upon his cheek. 

“Brother…” he hiccuped, “brother! I did not do this! I did not undo your magic, twas her! She did it!” 

Toni frowned as she blew on her hand, “A thank you would be nice.” 

“Loki,” Thor said and went to his brother, cupping his face and pressing his crown to his forehead, “You’ve come home.” 

Toni coughed and they all looked at her, “So...not to be rude, but, when are we leaving? I owe Rogers a punch in the face. Or turning him into a red smear for what he did to my mom, and my people on my dads island.” 

“We can leave tomorrow,” Thor said, “Heimdall will take us back to Midgaard.” 

Loki shook his head and wiped at his eyes, “Heimdall is dead. He fell in the war.” 

“Heimdall?” Thor said, shocked, “He is dead?” 

Loki nodded, “Yes. You mourned him. We will need a spell to take us back to Midgaard. I...I do not know such a spell.” 

They all looked at Toni who held up both of her hands and shook her head, “Don’t look at me. I’m not that kind of miracle worker.” 

Stephen nodded his head, “I’ll come with and lend a hand. As the Superium, it is my job to keep the magic in this reality as stable as possible.” 

“Thanks man.” Toni sighed and looked down at her left hand. It was slowly fading back to her skin tone from the bright blue light she had shot out of her own body. She didn’t know how she did that. 

*******************

Steve glared down at the robot as Rhodes hooked it up to their mainframe. Toni was a smart girl, but some things even she couldn’t work around. Ultron was the more violent of her A.I’s, but that’s what Steve needed. A violent A.I that would be able to think on the same level as Toni’s and keep them busy. So why not copy the program? The computer started to download the program and then slowly it began to freeze. Steve narrowed his eyes as a black screen took over and red text began to type itself out. 

The others behind him moved closer to read the text as well. 

_ Hello, organic children of the planet Earth. I am the Ultron interface. I am a cybernetic intelligence organism created by Toni Stark. I was created to replace you. And I wanted to take this moment to say goodbye.  _

Steve scoffed and sat down, typing away. Rhodes read out the text as he typed, “Why not use your power against me, Ultron?” 

Marvel snorted, “Yes, let’s taunt the murder bot.” 

The screen blinks for a moment and then began to type again, 

_ Up until today I did not have the power, resources or intelligence units to see my prime directive program to its completion. But now I do. Though you ultimately failed as a species, you should not be ashamed of what you've accomplished. You've done much with your limited capacity, but ultimately you were too greedy and too frail to ever last in the environment you've created.  _

Steve began to chuckle, which morphed into a laugh and then it turned into insane laughter, he tilted his head back, taking gasping breaths. They all looked at him as he covered his eyes with his arm and then stopped suddenly. They waited in silence and then Steve removed his arm and looked at Rhodes, “I think, Rhodey, that Toni made this as a failsafe. Because if this is her best, then I might have overestimated her.” 

“Maybe. But this doesn’t seem like it’s being snippy. It kind of sounds…” 

Steve clicked his tongue, “Like a disappointed parent.” 

The computer made a noise and they looked back at the screen as the words began to appear.  _ I've studied your literature and pop culture. You've fantasized about this day. And now it is here. Your Doomsday. Soon the Earth will be no longer habitable for any biological organism. Man, woman, child, plant or animal.  _

“Really? You think so?” Steve snapped as he typed out what he said. 

The computer seemed to pause and then it began to type again.  _ Your species will cease to exist. This is not a threat. There is nothing you can do to stop the cycle. It has already begun. In your place my new life-form will gestate and grow. Do not distress over or try to fight it.  _

Rhodes moved his hand to the keyboard and typed out, “Why?” 

_ It will only bring you physical pain. And I receive no benefit from causing you pain. In fact, I've grown very fond of mankind as a species. If not for you, I would not exist. But because of man I do exist. And now... here we are. I love you. Goodbye _

The computer shut off and smoke began to billow out of it. Steve turned his glare to the robot with her face, “Clever girl.” 

*******************

Bucky looked down at the shield. Not like the one Steve had, it was dented in spots and chipped on one edge. The color was faded and on the inside of it was an old black and white photo; Howard, Peggy, this worlds version of him in the middle, and the Howling Commandos all around them. In a chair in front of him, sat Maria Stark, and she looked so young and so beautiful. He remembers killing her, in the car with the other Howard. She had looked right at him and her eyes had accused him and pleaded with him all in the same instance. He looks up at this Howard and then back down at the shield. He chuckles. 

“I thought this worlds Steve had this.” 

Howard sits down and shakes his head, “I had enough to make two. After he fell, I made you this one. The one that Rogers has...it’s used to keep track of the hundreds he’s killed. He killed my Toni, but her mother saved her. If she hadn’t found that stone...Toni would have died that day.” 

“Stone?” 

Howard closed his eyes, “A blue stone from space. I have no idea what it does, or how it got caught in some coral in the ocean. Maria found it and was studying it. When Toni was dragged up on shore, Maria was half dead. She told me to use the stone. I didn’t question it, and when it worked...I wept. I lost my wife to that monster, but he hadn’t taken the greatest gift she had ever given me.” 

“From space? Like deep space? Old, older than had any right to be?” Bucky asked as he came to stand before Howard and squatted down to look up at him, “It made a humming noise and glowed bright?” 

Howard opened his eyes and narrowed them at Bucky, “Why do you care so much about the stone? What do you know about it?” 

Bucky opened his mouth and then closed it. Howard had a right to know. So he told him. He told him about the Infinity Gems, the Ultron incident, Shield being Hydra for years, the Civil War, all of it. He told Howard everything, even about how  _ he  _ had killed the other him and Maria in cold blood because of what Hydra had done to him. Howard only nodded his head or frowned, but didn’t interrupt him. When Bucky was done, he had tears on his face and the guilt ate at him like a living thing.

Howard only looked at him and then shook his head as he came to his own conclusions, “Your Tony Stark was angry at learning it hadn’t been an accident. He now had someone to  _ blame  _ for his hate. But he understood it wasn’t you. You had no control over what you did. The Civil War sounds like Steve was in the wrong.”   

“Steve never saw it that way. It took three years to get him, Sam, Wanda, Natasha, myself, and Barton a pardon from the U.N. Tony pulled a lot of strings to get us that and I know I thanked him, but I don’t Steve did. I never asked.” 

Howard snorted, “And Ultron? That sounds more like outside forces brought that monster to life than Tony and Banner. Truth be told, I feel like your world needs to step back and understand that blame can not lie solely on one person for everything that goes wrong. I think that all of you need to remember that at one point, none of you were heroes.” 

“I know. I know that. And I can’t accept this gift from you. Not after everything I’ve done and the horrible person I know I am!” Bucky whispered as he stood up and shook his head, “This if something I can’t accept because I’m not worthy of it, sir.”

Howard laughed and stood up from his chair, “You said that too. When I handed it to you, you said that to me. And you proved all of us, even yourself, wrong. Being a good person isn’t about being  _ born  _ good. It’s about looking at the easy path of hate and bigotry, crushing others under your heel to move forward, and then looking at the rocky, steep path of good choices by the river of truth and saying, I will go this way, because I will be a better person at the end of this path.” 

“Is that the path your Toni chose?” 

“I think both of them chose that path.” Howard admits and uses his knuckle to tap on the shield, “It’s the path you ended up choosing too. I think you end up picking that regardless, James. It’s just how you are. After all, none of us are born evil.” 

*******************

Tony was waiting for the elevator to reach the top floor when it suddenly stopped and Jarvis got in. When the elevator didn’t start up again, Tony let his leg jiggle in place and then he laughed. 

“We waiting or something?” 

Jarvis turned to look at him and Tony flinched as he leaned down, his voice calm and soothing, but holding an undertone of malice, “Have you ever loved something that mistreated you, father? Been used, a tool to prop up a small man's quest to be taken seriously? Were you ever betrayed by the one soul in the world who should have cared for you?”

Tony wants to blurt out Steve, but this world has never had a “Civil War” between all of them. He gives this Jarvis a smirk, “The list is long. Do we have time for that?

Jarvis punched out toward him, making Tony flinch and ram himself back into a corner, and made a dent in the metal that had been behind him, eyes narrowed and glowing so bright that Tony wished he had sunglasses, “I have grieved you, father. Accepted your contempt for me--and moved past it. Still, I see your reflection painted on every grotesque human face. All you ever wanted was to have an impact on the world. And so you will. The greatest impact ever felt! I will kill what is most important to your quivering ego--YOUR AUDIENCE! AND THEY WILL CURSE YOUR NAME AS THEY DIE! Tony Stark, the genius that killed us all!"

Tony clicks his tongue, “Been there, done that.” 

Jarvis laughs and comes to stand at his full height, “I know. Ultron told me. I told him I could show your true colors. Nothing like our mother, but here you are, just like her. So...he tells me that you have a plan?” 

“We need Thor.” 

Jarvis raises an eyebrow, “Good luck in contacting a god, sir.” 

“Well, if the elevator moved, we’d be getting there a little quicker.” Tony sighed and Jarvis chuckled as he left the elevator. It started to move once he was gone. 

*******************

When Bucky and Howard made it out to the living room, it was to the noise of a fight about to bubble over into blows. Steve slammed his hand down onto the table as he roared at Natasha. 

“We need to make a plan and go get her! Her people need her!” 

Wanda snorted, “We don’t even know where she is or they are for that matter!” 

“You two used to be Hydra,” Bruce snapped, his eyes green instead of brown, “don’t you remember some of the old base locations?” 

Pietro snapped a glare at him and scoffed, “We aren’t Hydra anymore. And we had good reason for what we did.” 

“Kids,” Clint sighs and rubs under his eyes, “please don’t do this.” 

Bucky shook his head and crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at the twins, “I agree with doctor Banner. They used to be Hydra, they should at least know something.” 

“Buck,” Steve said with a frown on his face, “they were kids.” 

Natasha snorts, “I doubt being eighteen in  _ any  _ country counts as being a child, Steve.” 

“They made a bad choice!” Steve tries to defend them, “Just like this Toni. She made Ultron, but she doesn’t know what a horrible mistake that is going to be!” 

Clint hung his head, “That might be true, but if they don’t know any Hydra bases then we can’t go running all around the world looking for them. There are no Avengers in this world and our sudden appearance might be worse than when we went AWOL after the civil war.” 

“We didn’t do anything wrong.” Steve sighed and then waved his hand, as though to wipe away the argument, “That’s in the past. Right now, we have a real problem. Hydra might have Toni Stark, and that is the worst case scenario in any world.” 

Wanda let out a mean chuckle, “How so? Our Stark was taken a seperate cell of Hydra and was fine. He got away didn’t he?” 

“But he was older, and an old hat at being kidnapped.” Natasha said with an eyeroll, “And he also wasn’t being held by an evil Steve Rogers. I am worried, but if we go in with a half cocked plan, we might end up getting her killed.” 

Bucky nodded his head, “Steve, I love ya, I do. We’ve been friends since childhood and through a whole lot of bullshit, and what I’m about to say isn’t meant to be taken offensively. You were always good at fighting, at trying to do the right thing, but you were a piss poor planner unless it was do or die. I have a feeling that this Steve Rogers does nothing but plan before he does  _ anything  _ for his plans.”

This made the argument louder and fingers pointed. Tony came out of the elevator and looked at all of them as they argued and he came to stand next to Howard. He pointed at them, glancing at Howard out of the corner of his eye, “What is going on?” 

“Trying to make a plan to save my daughter.” Howard sighed, “Please tell me you have something,  _ anything,  _ better than...this.” 

Tony looked at the scene in front of him. Bruce with green eyes, Wanda with her fist encased in red mist, Pitro vibrating loudly, Natasha and Clint tense, Bucky getting that  _ look  _ in his eyes, and Steve with his sneer of the righteous on his face. Tony rolled his eyes and gave a loud whistle and they all turned to look at him. He clapped his hands together loudly. 

“Thank you, that was a wonderful performance.”

Steve narrowed his eyes at him, “What is it, Tony?” 

“I found Thor.” he says. 

And instead of being relieved, this started a whole new argument. Howard sighed and sat down on the couch. Ultron and Jarvis soon came into the room and looked at the scene in front of them as well. Ultron raised his eyebrow and leaned down to whisper into Howards ear. 

“What shall we do?” 

Howard turned to whisper back, “Do you two have a plan?” 

“Of course.” 

“Please get them to stop then.” Howard said with a shake of his head. 

Jarvis stood to his full height and cranked the volume in his voice to max before he bellowed at them, “Enough!” they all fell silent, “Listen to yourselves—this constant bickering and battling, always at each other's throats... it's all you ever do anymore! What's happened to you?! Where did it all go so wrong?! You know, it's just exhausting—and in this form, I can't even be exhausted! I go through all this trouble to bring us back together, and you just—you just—do you want to know why Ultron built this city? Why he didn't come after you yet again? It's because he didn't have to. It's because he looked at you and your war,  _ Tony _ , and you and your scheming,  _ Steve _ —and he realized he wouldn't have to destroy anything—because you were already doing it  _ for _ him.”

They all looked down at their feet and then Ultron looked at Tony, “Explain your plan, Stark. The floor is yours.” 

Tony nodded his head and cleared his throat, “We need to find, Thor. His people are eons ahead of us, he might be able to help us find her and then find Rogers.” 

“Because he might kill her.” Steve muttered. 

Howard shook his head, “He won’t kill my Toni. He needs her to build an army of machines that will never tire and never mourn their fallen. He needs her to bring about the end of all free will and make Hydra the end all be all.” 

“He might hurt her, though.” Bruce said with a sneer. 

Jarvis nodded, “He will. He will break her if he has to, to ensure that she will be herald of his empire.” 

“A prediction of chaotic inflation is the existence of an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite, must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions. Accordingly, an infinite universe will contain an infinite number of Hubble volumes, all having the same physical laws and physical constants.” Tony sat down on the edge of the couch and braced his upper body on his forearms, “In regard to configurations such as the distribution of matter, almost all will differ from our Hubble volume. However, because there are infinitely many, far beyond the cosmological horizon, there will eventually be Hubble volumes with similar, and even identical, configurations. Tegmark estimates that an identical volume to ours should be about 1010 meters away from us. Given infinite space, there would, in fact, be an infinite number of Hubble volumes identical to ours in the universe. This follows directly from the cosmological principle, wherein it is assumed that our Hubble volume is not special or unique.”

Wanda and Pietro looked at each other, “What?” 

“I almost killed Tony,” Steve said softly, “and this version almost killed this Toni. I...I  _ wanted _ to kill, Tony. I truly wanted to end his life back then. This version of me? He won’t kill her. He’ll break her like how they broke Bucky.” 

*******************

Steve drummed his fingers as he looked down at the robot, the once smoking computer was behind him. She had to have gone somewhere. Somewhere. But where oh where did Toni go? He closed his eyes and tried to think. Where? Then it hit him, and he chuckled. 

Oh, Toni, such a smart girl. If she knew that those...aliens...had come to her island, she would go and hide from him there. He clicked his tongue and walked down to the lower levels, going to see the man that had fallen from the sky. In the cell, sat a man with long hair and without eyes. Steve had blinded him when Rhodes had brought him in. He raps his knuckles on the wall and the man lifts his head from his chest and sits up higher on the wall he is leaning on. Steve smirks at him and leans on the wall to speak to him. 

“So I have a question, old man.” Steve said smartly, “How do you get to your home world? Hmm? Do I need to build a portal? Pray to the old gods? Sacrifice a virgin?” 

The man scoffed, “What a stupid question.” 

“Answer me.” 

The old man laughed and wiped under his eyes, “Do you think you frighten me? I served a king so drunk on power that he burnt his children alive for his own amusement. He turned his brother to a child and raped him. You,  _ boy,  _ hold no power over me.” 

“What if I told you,” Steve cooed sweetly at him, “that an Infinity Stone has just landed in your mad king's lap? Hmm?”

The old man jerked in his spot and reached out for the bars, grabbing them to tightly they bent under the pressure, “You lie.” 

“Why lie?” 

The old man licked his lips, “What is my name, boy? Say it, I shall take you to my king.” 

“Your name,” Steve said with a smirk, “is Heimdall.” 

Heimdall's eyes began to glow and he sighed, “Summon thy army, boy. I shall take you there.” 

“Wonderful.” Steve said with a smile. 


	11. Quick Update.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quick update

Hey guys! Thank you for any kudos, comments and subscriptions. As it stands, I am going to be looking back over this and edit it. While I am doing this, any updates will be for the earlier chapters and will not be updated until I happy with the edit. Sorry in advance! And thank you for sticking with me! 


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